Haiti still waiting for international force to tackle gangs

Port au Prince: Haiti is waiting desperately for the first members of a Kenyan led multinational force tasked with ending the stranglehold of powerful...

Port-au-Prince: Haiti is waiting desperately for the first members of a Kenyan-led multinational force tasked with ending the stranglehold of powerful and ultra-violent gangs, but their hoped-for arrival this week was delayed.

The deployment gained new urgency with the announcement Friday that gang members killed three missionaries, a Haitian and an American couple, leading to renewed calls for the force to get up and running.

"The security situation in Haiti cannot wait," said a spokesperon for the US National Security Council after word emerged of the killings.

The UN-backed security mission -- in which the United States is providing logistical support, but not boots on the ground -- is supposed to help Haiti's weak, outgunned police force defeat the powerful criminal gangs.

Gangs control much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as swathes of the country, and have long terroized people with random shootings, kidnappings and violence.