Two Haitian police officers were killed and six others injured on Tuesday when a drone intended for targeting gang members exploded at a police base in Port-au-Prince, officials said.
It was the first government acknowledgment of collateral damage in Haiti’s use of aerial bombs against armed criminal groups.
Since March, a task force under the Haitian prime minister’s office made up of the police, military and other entities has been operating drones to target gang members.
An American private military contractor, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, is a key adviser to the group, which has been criticized for operating in secret and failing to coordinate operations with the Haitian National Police.
On Tuesday, an attack drone launched by the task force landed in an empty field without detonating. Local residents found it and took it to a police SWAT team base in the Kenscoff area of Port-au-Prince, the capital, according to a senior Haitian official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Members of the SWAT team were trying to disarm the device when it exploded, killing two officers, the official said.
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