Dhaka police kill 3 extremists, including attack 'mastermind'

Policemen patrol outside the Holey Artisan Bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant as others inspect the site after gunmen attacked, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 3, 2016. (REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File photo)
Updated 27 August 2016
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Dhaka police kill 3 extremists, including attack 'mastermind'

DHAKA: Bangladesh police stormed a militant hideout just outside Dhaka on Saturday, shooting dead three Islamist extremists, including the suspected mastermind of an attack on a cafe that killed 22 mostly foreign hostages last month.
“We can see three dead bodies here,” senior police officer Sanwar Hossain told AFP.
“Tamim Chowdhury is dead. He is the Gulshan attack mastermind and the leader of JMB (Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh),” he said, referring to a Bangladeshi-Canadian citizen believed to be behind the attack on the cafe in Dhaka.
Police earlier staged an hour-long gun battle with extremists at Paikpara in Narayanganj, a city 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Dhaka, Hossain said.
Bangladesh national police chief A.K.M Shahidul Hoque told AFP police were “99 percent sure” that Tamim Chowdhury was in the hideout when police launched the assault.
Chowdhury, who returned from Canada in 2013, has been leading the banned JMB, which police say carried out the cafe attack in which 18 foreigners were shot and hacked to death in the country’s worst terror attack.


US warships arrive off coast of Haiti

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US warships arrive off coast of Haiti

  • US embassy in Haiti says flotilla sent as a part of ‘Operation Southern Spear’
  • US military campaign targets alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific
WASHINGTON: US military officials said Tuesday American warships had arrived off the coast of Haiti, as the island country’s leaders cling to power in their ongoing war against violent drug gangs.
The USS Stockdale, USCGC Stone and USCGC Diligence entered the Bay of Port-au-Prince to “reflect the United States unwavering commitment to Haiti’s security, stability and a brighter future,” the US embassy in Haiti posted on X.
The flotilla was sent “at the direction of the Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth as a part of “Operation Southern Spear,” the statement said, referring to the US military campaign targeting alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that has killed more than 100 people in boat strikes.
After facing years of violence and instability, Haiti is entering a new phase of political turbulence in the days before the official end of the mandate for the country’s Presidential Transitional Council on February 7.
Gang violence forced the resignation in 2024 of a previous prime minister, Ariel Henry, and the country has not held elections since 2016, with government authority collapsing in much of the country, leading to overlapping security, health and economic crises.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, with swaths of the country under the control of rival armed gangs who carry out murders, rapes and kidnappings.
The US recently announced new visa restrictions targeting senior officials, who are accused of supporting gangs.