DHAKA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- A suspected suicide bomber died after blowing himself up near Bangladesh's principal airport in capital Dhaka on Friday night, police said, in the second attack within the span of a week claimed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.
According to a jihadist threat monitoring portal, SITE Intelligence Group, IS claimed its responsibility of bomb blast near a police box in front of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka in an online statement.
The authenticity of the statement has not been confirmed by Bangladesh Police on Friday night.
"A youth (aged about 25) blew himself up with a bomb attached to his body,"the Dhaka Metropolitan Police official said but did not like to be named.
The bomber died in what is believed to be a suicide attack.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, however, told reporters at the scene that the man was simply a carrier of the bomb and his intention was not to attack any of the law enforcers.
"The man could have attacked 8-10 law enforcers there if he wanted. But he didn't want so. So we can't say that it was an attack. "
"We think the bomb exploded accidentally as the carrier was scared to see law enforcers on the street."
Nure Azam Mia, officer-in-charge of Airport Police Station in Dhaka, told journalists that the blast happened at about 7:40 p.m. (local time).
No law enforcer was injured in the blast.
A bomb disposal unit searched the man's bag and found three powerful bombs, which were later defused.
A high alert was put on strategically important places including airports and prisons in Bangladesh following a "suicide blast" at the proposed headquarters of the country's elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in capital Dhaka last Friday.
The last Friday incident took place a day after Bangladesh law enforcers stormed a militant hideout at Sitakunda on the outskirts of the country's seaport city Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of Dhaka.
Five including four militants of Neo-JMB (an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) were killed during the raid.
At least two of them reportedly blew themselves up in suicide explosions and two others were shot by law enforcers.
Neo-JMB has been blamed for an attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter last July, in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed.
In the wake of the Dhaka cafe attack, Bangladeshi law enforcers have conducted series of such big operations against militants.
