Berliner Tageblatt - Salvadoran troops encircle district in second major gangs crackdown

"As of this morning, the Tutunichapa district in San Salvador is totally surrounded," Bukele posted on Twitter.

"More than 1,000 soldiers and 130 police officers will extract the criminals who still remain," he added.

Authorities in Tutunichapa, a populous district of San Salvador, reported the first six arrests of "delinquents" without specifying whether they were accused of being gang members or drug traffickers, according to the presidential palace.

"All terrorists, drug traffickers and gang members will be removed" from the area, Bukele said in another tweet, adding that until recently it was a "bastion of crime."

"Honest citizens have nothing to fear and can continue to live their lives normally," he wrote.

Earlier this month Bukele, who has declared a state of emergency to quash gang violence, sent 8,500 soldiers and 1,500 police officers to surround Soyapango, the country's third largest city, with a population of nearly a quarter million.

The president had announced last month a plan to use troops to surround cities while house-by-house searches are conducted for gang members. Soyapango was first on the list.

The siege there has seen armored military vehicles, some with artillery, carrying out constant patrols while heavily armed police search houses and people as they leave their neighborhoods, as well as random searches of public transport.

As of December 15, some 500 suspected gang members had been arrested in Soyapango, according to the latest government figures.

Almost 60,000 suspected gang members have been arrested since the launch of the state of emergency in March, which has prompted humanitarian groups to question what they see as heavy-handed tactics.

Images released Saturday by the office of the president showed heavily armed soldiers entering the Tutunichapa, where small houses mostly constructed of concrete blocks stand alongside one of the many polluted streams that run through San Salvador.

M.Furrer--BTB