DHAKA: Militants killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, many of them hacked to death, after taking them hostage in a Bangladesh cafe overnight, an army spokesman said on Saturday.
“We've recovered 20 bodies. Most of them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons,” Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury told reporters in Dhaka.
The military said 20 hostages were killed during the 10-hour standoff, and a survivor's father said the attackers spared people who could recite verses from the Quran.
Dhaka's diplomatic zone on map.— AFP
An elite police force stormed the cafe to end the siege on Saturday, rescuing 13 people including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans.
Six gunmen were killed during the police operation and one was captured, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a TV broadcast.
Italy's foreign minister says the bodies of nine Italians have been identified in the Dhaka restaurant attack by extremists and one Italian citizen is unaccounted for.
Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni says Saturday that the person isn't among the bodies identified in a military morgue in Dhaka and isn't among the 20 victims.
Seven Japanese citizens have also been confirmed dead in the attack, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
There are reports that two Bangladeshi citizens along with two local security officials were also killed in the attack.
Gunmen attacked the upscale cafe, popular with expatriates, in the diplomatic area of Dhaka at around 9pm on Friday and had been holding about 20 hostages, including foreigners, before police poured into the building to try to free those stuck inside. At least two police were killed, authorities said.
“The operation is over. The situation is completely under control,” army spokesman Colonel Rashidul Hasan told AFP.
Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, a deputy director at the RAB force told Reuters one foreigner, probably Japanese, was among those who escaped after more than 100 commandos launched an operation to secure the upmarket cafe.
The militant Islamic State (IS), which has claimed the attacks, posted photos of what it said were dead foreigners killed in the assault on the cafe.