A wave of police operations across Brazil has culminated in the deaths of at least 44 people, including nine in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.

State Police said they returned fire in a shoot-out in the  Penha slums complex area, resulting in multiple casualties.

"Eleven suspects were wounded" and taken to the hospital, it said. "Nine of them died of their injuries," they said.

They added the Rio operation was a response to intelligence on a high-level meeting by gang leaders.

Two alleged drug gang leaders known as "Fiel" and "Du Leme" were among those who lost their lives during the Rio operation. Seven rifles, ammunition, and grenades have been seized from the suspects, police said.

Two police officers were also wounded and were in stable condition.

Deadly raids across Brazil

The firefight in Rio was just the latest deadly police action in the past few days.

In Sao Paulo state, authorities said Wednesday that 16 alleged criminals have been killed since police launched a massive anti-gang operation on Friday.

The operation came after 30-year-old special forces officer Patrick Bastos Reis was shot dead while on patrol in the port city of Guaruja on Thursday.

In the northeastern state of Bahia, officials reported the deaths of 19 suspects in three separate cities due to clashes with police since Friday.

Use of lethal force questioned

In all the cases, authorities said police had returned fire after coming under attack.

The operations have sparked a debate about the security forces' reliance on lethal force, particularly in a country where the police killed 6,429 people in 2022 alone.

Rio state legislator Dani Monteiro mentioned Wednesday's police operation came just over a year after a raid in the same favela complex left 25 dead.

She criticized Rio state Governor Claudio Castro, a security hardliner and ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, demanding a halt to his security policies.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Justice Minister, Flavio Dino, joined the criticism, arguing that the police response "doesn't seem proportional to the crime committed."

Lula da Silva, who beat Bolsonaro in last year's vote, has long criticized his predecessor's support of police who kill.

lo/ (AFP, Reuters)