Raid The Area Of Criminal Organizations In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil's Joint Forces Deploy 400 Officers, Four Planes, 10 Armored: 18 People Killed

Ilustrasi polisi Brazil. (Wikimedia Commons/Diary of a PM)

JAKARTA - At least 18 people were killed Thursday in a massive police raid in Rio de Janeiro's slums, the state's military police said, in the latest bloody confrontation in Brazil's second-largest city.

A tactical team from Rio de Janeiro's civil and military police stormed the Alemao compound to bring down suspected criminal organizations. The group is suspected of involvement in cargo theft and bank robbery, as well as plotting attacks on rival slums, military police said in a statement.

At least 18 people died in the attack: a police officer, 16 criminal suspects and a woman, police said. The operation involved about 400 officers, four aircraft and 10 armored vehicles. The skewed death toll has sparked fears of rights abuses.

"There are signs of major human rights violations and this is likely to be one of the operations with the highest death toll in Rio de Janeiro," the state's public defender's office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the military police declined to comment beyond their statement.

Rio State police forces regularly carry out deadly raids on the city's sprawling slums. President Jair Bolsonaro backed tough police tactics in fighting organized crime, saying gangsters should "die like cockroaches."

After the raids, local residents were seen carrying the injured people into the back of vehicles to be taken to hospitals while police watched. Gilberto Santiago Lopes, of the Anacrim Human Rights Commission, said police refused to help.

"We had to take them away in a drinks truck, and then tag the locals in their cars to take them to the hospital," he said.

"(Police) don't aim to catch them, they aim to kill them, so if they get hurt, they think they don't deserve help."

The locals were angry and shouted at the police. "We are afraid to live here," one resident shouted after the raid. "Where are we? Afghanistan? In war? In Iraq? If they want war, send them to Iraq."