U.S. arrests retired Salvadoran officer implicated in atrocities

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers escort retired Salvadoran military officer Roberto Antonio Garay Saravia, who was detained on charges of commanding an elite army force responsible for the notorious El Mazote massacre in which more than 1,000 civilian adults and children were killed by soldiers in late 1981, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., April 6, 2023. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS

(This story has been corrected to change the number of victims to 'more than 1,000' in paragraph 4)

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - U.S. agents arrested a retired Salvadoran military officer this week on charges of participating in a brutal massacre of civilians during El Salvador's grinding civil war in the 1980s, according to a statement on Thursday.