US military completes ‘counter-terrorism mission’ with El Salvador

WASHINGTON - The US military has completed a "successful counter-terrorism mission" in partnership with El Salvador, a senior Pentagon official said on March 31, though the term appeared to refer to the deportation of alleged criminals.

Earlier on March 31, the State Department said that a group of alleged Venezuelan and MS-13 gang members was transported to El Salvador by the US military on the night of March 30.

The term "counter-terrorism" has traditionally been used in the Pentagon to classify operations that target militants in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

The Pentagon did not specify what kind of "counter-terrorism" operation it had carried out in its brief statement.

"The Department of Defence completed a successful counter-terrorism mission this weekend, in partnership with El Salvador," Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's chief of staff, Mr Joe Kasper, said in a statement.

The State Department in its separate statement on March 31 said that 17 people who it says were foreign criminals were deported over the weekend.

The group of alleged violent criminals tied to Tren de Aragua and MS-13 was transported by the US military on the night of March 30, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, adding that the deportees included murderers and rapists.

Mr Trump, a Republican, took office in January vowing to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally as part of a wide-ranging immigration crackdown.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that historically has been used only in wartime, to

target alleged members of the Venezuelan gang

Tren de Aragua. REUTERS