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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the aftermath of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in the Brazilian city has reported how local people returned with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", the photographer reported. They included those of police officers.

A particular victim was found without a head - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he explained. Several bodies showed what he described as knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were killed during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness reported that he initially learned about the operation Tuesday morning by local people from the Alemão area, who sent him messages telling him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness traveled to the healthcare center, where the victims were being brought.

Itan explained that the police stopped members of the press from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the operation were taking place.

"Security forces formed a line and declared: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

But Itan, who was raised in the community, stated he managed to enter past the security perimeter, where he remained until the next morning.

He explained that Tuesday night, area inhabitants commenced searching the hillside that separates the community of Penha and the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members living in Penha organized the recovered bodies in an open area - the photographer's images reveal the emotions of the people there.

"The violence of what occurred impacted me deeply: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, pregnant wives, weeping, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The governor of the region declared that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 officers was intended to preventing an illegal organization known as the criminal faction from growing their influence.

Initially, the Rio state government maintained that "60 suspects and four police officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates shows that 117 individuals lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has calculated the overall count of casualties to be 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has managed to make territorial gains across the region.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, in company with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to correspondent Rafael Soares, who has long reported on crime in Rio over many years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "commercial associates".

The criminal group concentrates largely on illegal drug trade, while also dealing in weapons, valuable minerals, energy resources, alcohol smoking products.

Based on official reports, organization members are well armed and police said that while the action was underway, they came under attack using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of Rio state, the government representative, described organization participants as criminal extremists and referred to the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

But the number of fatalities during the raid has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "shocked".

At a news conference the next day, the state leader justified security actions.

"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He continued that the circumstances had escalated as the individuals fought back: "It occurred of the resistance they executed and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The governor further reported that the casualties displayed by locals in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post through digital channels, he asserted that certain victims had been taken of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame to security forces".

A police official from the police department additionally stated that military attire, vests, and firearms" had been removed from the casualties and displayed evidence seemingly depicting an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse