El Salvador to escalate its security crackdown after death of police officers

President Nayib Bukele vowed to step up its war on gangs' even as 2% of the country's population is jailed

El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, has vowed to escalate his controversial war on gangs" after three police officers were killed in what appeared to be the first major reaction to a security crackdown that critics have called one of the most dramatic in recent Latin American history.

Bukele's government claims more than 43,000 Salvadorians have been thrown in jail since it imposed a state of exception" in late March - leaving almost 2% of the country's entire adult population behind bars.