AhlulBayt News Agency - Armed militants killed 20 civilians, most of them foreign, after taking them hostage in a cafe in the capital of Bangladesh overnight and many of the victims were hacked to death, an army spokesman said on Saturday.
Bangladeshi forces stormed the upscale restaurant early Saturday, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives including foreigners.
"We've recovered 20 bodies. Most them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons," Brig Gen Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka, without giving the nationality of the victims.
Officials from Japan said seven of its citizens were unaccounted for.
About 35 people were taken hostage, including about 20 foreigners, when gunmen stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone, on Friday night during the Ramadan holy month. Two police officers were killed at the start of the attack.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack, which was claimed by the ISIS group, and she said security officials arrested one of the militants.
"Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee,'' Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward.
"Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act,'' Hasina said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.''
A Japanese government spokesman said that a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said that the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack.
Masud said that two Sri Lankans also were rescued. Others included an Argentine and two Bangladeshis, local media reported.
The ISIS group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors ISIS activity online. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies. The authenticity of the images could not be confirmed.
With the sound of gunfire and explosions, local TV stations reported that the rescue operation began at 7:40am It included army personnel with automatic weapons and at least seven armored vehicles and ambulances. The attackers did not respond to authorities' calls for negotiation, Masud said.
The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when people in the mostly Muslim country fast during the day and eat after dark.
On Friday evening, many people headed to the popular bakery and restaurant that serves Spanish food and is patronised by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighbourhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. The restaurant overlooks a lake and on pleasant evenings, diners often chose to eat outdoors.
Kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped, said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar'' (God is Great) as they assaulted around 9:20pm Friday, initially opening fire with blanks.
Rezaul Karim, the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued along with his family, said the attackers did not harm any hostage who could recite verses from the Islamic holy book, the Koran.
Karim said his son, Hasnat, had gone to the restaurant along with his wife and two children to celebrate the birthday of his elder daughter when the attack happened. "He told me, `Please save us, please!' And he hung up,'' he said.
Karim said his son told him that the attackers "did not hit people who could recite verses from the Koran. The others were tortured,'' he said.
"The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night,'' Karim said.
He said detectives were questioning his son and his family as part of the investigation.
Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the initial gunfire. Ten of 26 people who were wounded when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded.
The government did not directly comment on the IS claim but has denied that the extremist group based in Syria and Iraq has a presence in Bangladesh, instead blaming the recent violence on its political enemies.
The recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance.
About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaeda affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.
Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radicals by making scores of arrests. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties -- especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami -- of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilise the nation, which both parties deny.
"The bottom line is Bangladesh has plenty of local, often unaffiliated, militants and radicals happy to stage attacks in the name of ISIS," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at The Wilson Centre in Washington.
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