Blast occurred at the camp of elite RAB near Dhaka airport

A man blew himself up on Friday at a camp for Bangladesh’s elite security forces, wounding two others, in an apparent botched suicide attack. The incident came a day after a series of raids on suspected militant hideouts in the troubled country, which has suffered a series of Islamist attacks in recent years.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said a man carrying explosives entered the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) camp near the Dhaka international airport on Friday morning. The explosives went off after he was challenged by two RAB men, wounding them both but causing no other casualties.

“Security has been beefed up at all international and domestic airports,” Bangladesh Civil Aviation authorities’ spokesman Rezaul Karim told reporters. The bomb exploded after the man, who entered the camp by jumping over a wall, was confronted by RAB officers, RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan told reporters. It was not clear whether the detonation was deliberate.

The spokesman said the man’s identity was not known, but that the attack was similar in style to that of previous ones by Islamist extremists. The attacker was in his late 20s, local newspaper Daily Star said, quoting witnesses. “The force of the blast was such that it ripped apart his torso and sent pieces of him flying in all directions for about 15-20 metres,” the newspaper said.

After the attack, a bomb disposal unit swept the spot and recovered a live improvised explosive device, RAB spokesman said. The camp, which hosts a mix of elite police, army and air force personnel, has since been cordoned off.