A team of American government investigators has arrived in Haiti to assist the investigation into the assassination of the country’s president, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

While the White House and Pentagon are reviewing the  Haitian government’s request for troops to help secure the country, there has been little enthusiasm for sending American soldiers or Marines.

But a team of F.B.I. agents and Department of Homeland Security officials will assist the investigation into last Wednesday’s killing of President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti, John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told Fox News.

“I think that’s really where our energies are best applied right now, helping them get their arms around investigating this incident and figuring out who’s culpable, who’s responsible, and how best to hold them accountable going forward,” Mr. Kirby said.

On Sunday, a seven-member team of officials from the United States arrived in Haiti to offer security and investigative assistance, U.S. Embassy officials said. The Americans included policy officials from the National Security Council, the State Department and the Transportation Security Administration as well as investigators from the F.B.I., the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

In the wake of the assassination, there has been a sense of chaos in some parts of Haiti, with some people gathering at the U.S. Embassy there hoping to leave, and competing political factions vying for control of the government.

Chris Wallace of Fox News pressed Mr. Kirby on whether conditions in Haiti were a matter of national security. While the United States is watching the situation closely, Mr. Kirby said, the American investigative team would be “the best way forward.”

“I don’t know that we’re at a point now where we can say definitively that our national security is being put at risk by what’s happening there,” Mr. Kirby said. “But clearly we value our Haitian partners. We value stability and security in that country.”

The Pentagon was caught off guard by the Haitian request for troops, which came on Friday, but Mr. Kirby’s comments on Sunday showed that a few days later the thinking had not shifted, and if anything had hardened against any new deployment.

The Biden administration has been reviewing troop deployments around the world, and has been intent on continuing the drawdown of American forces from Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The NewYork Times