The U.S. military has completed a “successful counter-terrorism mission” in partnership with El Salvador, a senior Pentagon official said on Monday, though the term appeared to refer to the deportation of alleged criminals.
The Pentagon did not specify what kind of “counter-terrorism” operation it had carried out in its brief statement.
The State Department in its separate statement on Monday 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 U.S. military on Sunday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, adding that the deportees included murderers and rapists.
