EFL
Fifty U.S. Marines are being deployed to Haiti on Monday, NBC News has learned, as rebels said they will soon attack the capital after over-running Haiti’s second-largest city on Sunday. The takeover was the biggest victory of a bloody uprising to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski, reporting from the Pentagon, said the U.S. ambassador in Haiti had requested the Marines. U.S. officials said the 50-man team, trained in counterterrorism, will join a dozen Marines already in Haiti to provide additional security for the embassy. Pentagon and military officials are still reviewing plans for a possible emergency airlift of some 300 U.S. government staff from Haiti if necessary, but as of Monday morning there had been no decision to issue an evacuation order, Miklaszewski said. |