Gunmen seized a bakery in Dhaka, killing 20 hostages and two officers in an overnight siege that ended Saturday morning, the Bangladeshi military said.
All the hostages killed were foreigners, the military said.
The attackers used guns, explosive devices and “a lot of sharp domestic weapons,” said Brig. Gen. Naeem Ashfaq Chowdhury of the Bangladesh army. The hostages’ bodies were found after the standoff ended in the country’s capital.
Fourteen hostages were rescued, said Brig. Gen. Mujibur Rahman of the Bangladesh army.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina provided a different number, but officials said the figures are preliminary.
“We were able to save 13 people, we weren’t able to save a few … and of these terrorists, six died on the spot,” Hasina said at a news conference. One of the terrorists was captured alive, she said.
One Japanese national and two Sri Lankans were among the hostages rescued, officials from both nations said.
Bullets, shrapnel
Witnesses described chaotic scenes when the gunmen raided the Holey Artisan Bakery.
Cafe worker Sumon Reza said he saw six to eight gunmen enter the bakery, and escaped as they came in.
In his office nearby, Ataur Rahman said he heard a series of gunshots as people raced for cover, some yelling that the gunmen were shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
When police arrived, the gunmen shot and threw explosives at officers, a witnesses said.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attack, according to its media branch, Amaq, but some U.S. officials cast doubt on the claim.
Attack shocks nation
Even in a country that has become increasingly numb to Islamist attacks, the Holey Artisan Bakery standoff was particularly jolting in its brazenness.
It was not so much that the attack took place in a public place, in full view of a horrified public. Such public attacks have happened before — American blogger Avijit Roy was hacked with machetes outside Bangladesh’s largest book fair.
It was not even that the targets were foreigners. That too has happened before — more than once.
It was the time and the location that revolted many everyday Bangladeshis.
The gunmen went into the bakery on a Friday, the holiest day of the week in Islam, and at a time when the devout would be sitting down to break their fast in the holy month of Ramadan.
And they targeted not a bar or a club — the kinds of venues fundamentalist Muslims rail against — but a bakery.
Why did it happen at the bakery?
It’s more likely because of the bakery’s location: Gulshan.
Gulshan is one of Dhaka’s most affluent neighborhoods. Perhaps more importantly for the attackers, it’s a diplomatic enclave. Most of the embassies and high commissions have a presence in Gulshan.
Residents in the neighborhood expressed shock because the upscale neighborhood was considered safe with buildings behind walls, gated driveways and security guard booths.
Holey Artisan Bakery had become a popular destination for expats and diplomats, and attackers may have chosen it hoping for maximum global impact.
“They wanted maximum exposure. They got it,” said Sadrul Kabir, a Gulshan resident.
Is ISIS behind the attack?
Though there was the reported ISIS claim of responsibility, the U.S. State Department said Friday that cannot be confirmed. Spokesman John Kirby said the State Department is assessing information.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for a number of past attacks in Bangladesh through its media affiliates, but the government has consistently denied the terror group’s presence in the country. Other attacks have been claimed by local Islamist groups.
“We don’t want these terrorists in Bangladesh,” the Prime Minister said. “This type of situation is a first in Bangladesh, until now they were committing individual murders. But now suddenly they created this type of situation. What they did here was a very heinous act.
But experts said Bangladesh is a target for terrorists.
“In the case of ISIS and its connection to international terrorism in Bangladesh, they have mentioned the country several times in Dabiq, their online journal,” said Sajjan Gohel, the international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation. “They talked about the fact that they were going to carry out more attacks, they were going to increase the tempo, and they were calling for volunteers from Bangladesh to join them.”
One U.S. official familiar told CNN’s Barbara Starr that based on past operations, it is more likely al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent conducted this attack — not ISIS. The official said AQIS has demonstrated a more capable presence in Dhaka over the past few months than ISIS, and so far, all of its attack in the nation have been in the city.
Home to almost 150 million Muslims, the country had avoided the kind of radicalism plaguing others parts of the world. But in the last two years, a wave of murders across Bangladesh have killed secular writers, academics and religious minorities.
The string of targeted murders has sparked debate about the involvement of ISIS.
In response to growing criticism, the Bangladeshi government launched an anti-militant drive last month. But many of those detained are believed to be ordinary criminals and not Islamic extremists.