Haitian gangs try to seize airport
Al Jazeera
Heavily armed gangs have tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport, exchanging gunfire with police and soldiers.
The Toussaint Louverture International Airport was closed at the time of the attack on Monday, with no planes operating and no passengers on site. It was the latest attack on key government sites in an explosion of violence that includes a mass escape from the country’s two biggest prisons.
It was far from the first assault targeting the transport hub amid a series of gang attacks. Last week, bullets had struck the airport, but the attackers did not enter the premises.
The latest attack came hours after the Haitian authorities ordered a night-time curfew following violence in which armed gangs overran the two biggest prisons and freed thousands of inmates over the weekend.
A 72-hour state of emergency began on Sunday night as the authorities launched a hunt for the killers, kidnappers and other violent criminals they said had escaped.
