Six killed as BD police raid Islamist hideouts

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh: Five suspected militants and a young boy were killed on Thursday as Bangladesh police conducted a series of raids on what they said were extremist hideouts following a series of deadly Islamist attacks in the country.

Police stormed a building in the southern port city of Chittagong overnight, sparking a 15-hour stand-off with militants armed with guns and grenades with around 20 civilians trapped inside.

Four members of the homegrown extremist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) including one woman died in that operation, police said. At least two were killed by a suicide explosion that they set off.

"They came out in the stairs and carried out a big explosion. Parts of their bodies were spread to 25-30 yards (metres)," said Sanwar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of the police counter-terrorism unit.

Police later found the body of a young boy as they searched the flat, senior officer Rezaur Rahmansaid.