Managua (AFP) – At least 10 people were killed and around 20 injured on Sunday in an operation launched by police and paramilitary forces in southern Nicaragua, a human rights group said.

The dead included six civilians — among them two children — and four police, according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH).

The operation targeted the city of Masaya, the nearby Niquinohomo and Catarina communities and the Monimbo neighborhood.