Soldiers raid Ecuador prison as two arrested for prosecutor’s murder

The government crackdown on gangs face fierce retaliation as violence rages in the country.

Ecuador’s security forces have stormed a major prison complex as part of a “war” between the government and powerful criminal gangs as police arrested the suspected killers of a prosecutor.

Hundreds of soldiers and police launched an operation on Thursday in a vast penitentiary complex in the port city of Guayaquil – the same one from which gang boss Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, escaped last week.

The jailbreak sparked a government crackdown and, in turn, fierce retaliation from criminal groups.

After Thursday’s raid, the army shared photos of cuffed inmates in their underwear lying face down in prison courtyards.

Similar images have been released in recent days as the government tries to wrest control of prisons back from the gangs.