PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Sept 23, (AP): Explosive drones targeting a suspected gang leader killed at least eight children inside a slum in Haiti’s capital and seriously wounded six others, relatives and activists told The Associated Press on Monday, as they blamed police for the attack. The explosions happened Saturday night in Cité Soleil, which is controlled by Viv Ansanm, a powerful gang coalition that the US has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

One of its leaders, Jimmy Chérizier, best known as Barbecue, vowed to avenge the attacks, with a total of at least 13 people killed, according to residents. "This is my daughter,” said Claudia Bobrun, 30, as she showed the AP a video of her 8-year-old girl lying in a pool of blood. Tears rolled down her face as she replayed the video. Michelin Florville, 60, said the explosion killed two of his grandchildren, ages 3 and 7, and his 32-year-old son.

"People were running right and left,” he recalled, noting that he was standing near where one explosion occurred. Meanwhile, Nanouse Mertelia, 37, said she was inside her house on Saturday night and ran out to see what happened after hearing an explosion. Her son had left their home several minutes earlier to get something to eat. She found him on the ground, his leg and arm blown off.

"Come get me, come get me, please mama,” she said he told her, but he had lost too much blood. "By the time we got to the hospital, he died.” Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network accused police of launching two exploding drones in the Simon Pelé community of Cité Soleil as suspected gang leader Albert Steevenson, known as Djouma, prepared to celebrate his birthday.

The group said that Steevenson was distributing gifts to children when the attack occurred. Romain Le Cour, head of Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said the attack raises "urgent questions of accountability.” "It has now been 48 hours since the incident, and the authorities have yet to issue any official communication or assume public responsibility.

Who, ultimately, will assume responsibility for this attack: The prime minister? The transitional presidential council? Private security companies? The leadership of Haiti National Police?” he asked. Le Cour said the attacks would only reinforce the gang coalition's anti-government narrative at a critical juncture. "They are also likely to deepen public mistrust in state institutions and accelerate the erosion of governmental legitimacy,” he said.