Brazilian police reported that they launched a massive campaign to combat the “Red Team” criminal group in the slums north of Rio de Janeiro, killing 7 people and wounding two police officers.
The Brazilian newspaper O Globo, citing police data, reported that the operation began on Tuesday morning, and mainly affected the northern part of the city.
The newspaper added that members of the "Red Team" group built barricades, set fire to them, and poured oil in the streets in an attempt to obstruct the movement of police officers in the operation areas.
The newspaper explained that the police launched a massive operation on Tuesday in the slums in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro, which resulted in the injury of two police officers and the killing of 7 suspects, and 3 others were injured and two were arrested.
The newspaper pointed out that studies in the city were suspended amid the combat operations out of concern for the lives of about 20,500 students.
Four defendants appear before an American court on charges of transporting Iranian-made weapons
Four crew members of an unidentified ship appear before a US federal court, accused of transporting Iranian-made missile components, and the public prosecutor is expected to demand their detention without bail pending trial.
On the night of January 11, members of the US Navy boarded a ship in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Somalia. During the operation, two marines drowned.
Informed American officials said: Christopher Chambers, a member of the Navy, slipped into a gap created by high waves between the ship and the US Navy Coast Guard ship. As a result, another Marine named Nathan Gage Ingram jumped in to try to rescue him, but efforts to find and rescue them were unsuccessful.
An FBI agent stated in an affidavit: During the search of the ship, advanced Iranian conventional weapons were found and confiscated, which included important parts of medium-range ballistic missiles and cruise anti-ship missiles, a warhead, and propulsion and guidance components.
He added: The components found match the weapons used by the Houthis in recent attacks against commercial ships and American military ships in the region.
The four accused men had Pakistani identity cards.
Mohammed Bahlawan faces charges of trying to smuggle advanced missile components, which he knew the Houthis would use against commercial ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters. Pahlawan is also accused of providing false information to US Coast Guard officers while they were boarding the ship.
Other associates of Pahlawan, Mohammed Mazhar, Ghufranullah, and Izhar Mohammed, face charges of providing false information.
Lawyers for the four men declined to comment.
The FBI affidavit states that the crew members contacted several times using a satellite phone with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.