Bangladeshi police have carried out a string of raids on suspected militants in recent weeks
Police in Bangladesh say five suspected Islamist militants have been killed during an anti-terror operation in the western district of Rajshahi.
According to police, the five blew themselves up before their hideout was stormed.
Police say two of the dead were women. A fire fighter was also killed and three policemen injured.
Police believe the militants belonged to an offshoot of the banned Jamiatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
The group has been blamed for a series of attacks on minority groups and secular writers and bloggers.
The raid is one of a number in recent weeks and comes at a time when many in Bangladesh thought security forces had managed to curb Islamist militancy, following the deadly siege on a cafe in Dhaka last year.
Bangladeshi police maintain that an offshoot of the JMB, called the neo-JMB, has carried out many recent attacks, despite claims to the contrary by so-called Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda.
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