BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Eleven Brazilian soldiers from  a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed in the  Caribbean country’s huge earthquake, Brazil’s army said in a  statement today.
General Carlos Barcellos said in an earlier news conference  in the capital Brasilia that many Brazilian soldiers were also  missing and that large numbers of civilians have moved toward  military bases in search of humanitarian aid.
One of the buildings housing Brazilian troops “completely  collapsed” and soldiers were searching for survivors, the  defense ministry said in a statement.
Brazil leads the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed to the  poor Caribbean nation in 2004 after a rebellion by gangs and  former soldiers forced elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand  Aristide into exile.
Thousands of people may be dead after the most powerful  earthquake to hit Haiti in more than 200 years that toppled the  presidential palace and hillside shanties and left the country  of 9 million people appealing for international help.
Barcellos said telephones are down and road transportation  is impossible due to wreckage, making it difficult to get an  exact count of the total number of Brazilians who perished in  the quake. At least one Brazilian civilian also died.
General Enzo Peri, the army’s top officer, will leave for  Haiti on Wednesday to assess the situation, said Barcellos.  Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim will also travel to  Haiti.
Brazil has 1,266 army and navy troops in Haiti as part of  the multinational force that as of last year included 9,065  police and military personnel from nations ranging from Jamaica  to Sri Lanka.
The South American nation took the lead in commanding the  United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, as  part of its broader effort to boost its influence on the world  stage.
The mission was mandated to help support the democratic  process, and oversaw the 2006 election of Rene Preval that  returned Haiti to constitutional rule.
But it has been criticized for failing to control gang  violence in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. Some human  rights groups have accused it of failing to investigate severe  human rights abuses by the Haitian police.