U.S. military airlifts embassy staff from Port-au-Prince amid Haiti's escalating gang violence

The United States military conducted an overnight operation Saturday into Sunday to evacuate American personnel by airlift from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti as violence escalates in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and across the Caribbean country, U.S. Southern Command said in a statement Sunday. Additional security was deployed as part of the operation, officials said.

"At the request of the Department of State, the U.S. military conducted an operation to augment the security of the U.S. Embassy at Port-au-Prince, allow our Embassy mission operations to continue, and enable non-essential personnel to depart," the U.S. Southern Command said in a statement to CBS News on Sunday morning. 

Airlifting U.S. personnel into and from the embassy is consistent with the military's standard practice for enhancing security at embassies worldwide, the statement continued. There were no Haitians on board the aircraft during the airlifts, according to the military.