At least 13 persons died on Wednesday in firefights between Brazilian police and drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro's notorious slums, state public safety secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame said.
Beltrame earlier said that 18 people had been killed, but in a press conference late on Wednesday lowered the toll.
"They were all criminals," he said.
Residents who removed a body from the area however told reporters that at least one of the victims was a worker.
Police launched a huge sweep through the so-called German Complex of 12 slums north of Rio de Janeiro, in which 100,000 people live largely under control of drug traffickers.
Some 1,350 officers joined in the operation to rid the slums of violent drug traffickers.
Police said that in the sweep they confiscated five assault rifles, pistols, 60 hand grenades, detonators, and four .30 caliber heavy machine guns. They also found 30k of marijuana and 40k of cocaine.
At least nine other people had bullet wounds, including a plain-clothes police officer and a 13-year-old girl shot in the leg. Area residents carried the girl out on a stretcher.
"The goal is to put an end to the traffickers' arsenals," said Beltrame, head of public safety of Rio de Janeiro state.
"We must retake control of the slums and instil public order," he said.
Beltrame said the force was made up of 1,200 local and federal police and 150 elite National Security Force police backed by three armored personnel carriers.
Police also used a bulldozer to topple barricades built by the traffickers, according to images on TV Globo News.
Businesses shuttered and eight area schools closed affecting some 4,000 pupils.
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