Bangladesh army today said it has neutralised all four Islamist militants, including a woman, who were holed up in a building after four days of siege in the northeastern Sylhet city, even as the 'Operation Twilight' continued to secure the site.
"We've found four bodies inside the building. All are with suicide vests," Brig General Mohammad Fakhrul Ahsan told reporters at a news briefing at the end of the fourth day of the security siege of the five-storey building 'Atia Mahal'.
"Our intelligence earlier suggested four militants, one being a woman, were inside the building...So we assume that no militant was alive anymore," Ahsan said.
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He, however, said the 'Operation Twilight' has not ended.
The army is planning how to recover the bodies of the militants from the building, he said.
Ten persons, including four militants, have been killed in the operation that lasted for four days in this city, about 236 km from the capital Dhaka.
The identity of the slain militants were not established. However, officials had earlier indicated that Jamaat-ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh chief Musa could be inside the building.
The neo-JMB, said to be inclined to the Islamic State, was behind the July 1 terror attack on a Dhaka cafe in which 22 people, including 17 foreigners, were killed.
The building is very risky as a huge cache of explosives including improvised explosive devices have been found scattered inside its premises, he said, adding that "the building will collapse if all these were to explode."
Of the four militants, two including a woman were killed today, he said.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had said earlier in the day that commandos could wrap up their assault any time.
"We expect the operation to end anytime, defeating the militants there," he said, adding that the para-commandos "proceeded slowly to minimise casualties" at the scene.
Earlier, fire broke out at the building occupied by the Islamist militants. Large gusts of smoke were seen coming out of the ground floor around 3:40 PM (local time). Fire fighters rushed to the scene and controlled the flames.
Army quickly moved in from the rear preparing for what it seemed like another assault, it said.
Around noon, the army used megaphones to ask the militants, who were holed up in the building, to surrender. However, there was no response from the other side.
After a relative lull since last night, sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard this morning from the building. Locals said they could hear burst of automatic weapons and explosions once again after 6 AM (local time).
Security was beefed up in the area and police restricted public movement in two square kilometres of the hideout.
Army commandos shot dead two militants at the building yesterday, a day after six people were killed and 50 injured on Friday in blasts claimed by the ISIS outside the hideout.
The commandos located the militants wearing suicide vests on the ground floor of the building and shot them dead.
The militants were equipped with small arms, explosives and grenades and laid out booby traps at different corners of the building, slowing down the military operation.
The operation was launched after a suicide bomber on Friday night blew himself up at the international airport in Dhaka in an attack claimed by the ISIS. It came a week after an identical attack on a RAB camp in Dhaka.
On Saturday, two powerful bombs ripped through a crowd near the hideout, killing six people, two being police officers and injuring about 50, including two army officers currently serving the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion.
The attacks were carried out by the extremists from outside, visibly being mixed up with onlookers, police said.
Hours later the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack through its propaganda news agency 'Amaq'.
Home Minister Khan, however, rejected the ISIS claim, saying that there was no presence of any foreign terrorist group in the country.
Meanwhile, residents who lived in the building said they were virtually taken hostage by militants who warned them of bombs implanted on their way out. The commandos brought them out from the top of the building making their way there from the rooftop of an adjacent structure.
Bangladesh has been witnessing a spate of attacks on secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities since 2013. The country launched a massive crackdown on militants specially after the Dhaka cafe attack.
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