A group of radical Islamic State terrorists took a group of around 20 people hostage in the diplomatic area of Dhaka, Bangladesh Friday, allegedly separating Westerners from local Bangladeshis.
Upon entering the Holey Artisan Bakery, a group of six to eight terrorists yelled “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), fired three shots, followed by a grenade. Once inside, the terrorists allegedly separated foreigners from locals.
The U.K.’s Telegraph initially reported that the assailants belong to the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam. Islamic State media group Amaq later took credit for the attack.
After engaging in an initial gunfight with local police, Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion was deployed to the scene. RAB specializes in counter-terrorism and hostage situations. Reports have claimed that RAB has made attempts to contact the terrorists in order to engage in negotiation, but they have not responded.
Footage emerges from Bangladesh’s capital, where gunmen have taken hostages at a restaurant popular with foreigners https://t.co/u2X6BymNhl
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 1, 2016
Two police are reported to have been killed in the firefight, with as many as two dozen others wounded.
“They blasted several crude bombs causing wide-scale panic among everyone. I managed to flee during this confusion,” said Sumon Reza, a supervisor at the bakery who managed to escape the assault. “They came armed with pistols, swords and bombs.”
The Holey Artisan Bakery is located in the Gulshan area of Dhaka, an area popular with foreign diplomats and ex pats. According to the U.S. State Department, all Americans known to be in the area have been accounted for and were not involved in the hostage situation.
Bangladesh has seen several sporadic terrorist attacks from radical Islamists against atheists, gays, bloggers and journalists in over the past year. The most recent attack occurred just hours before the Friday hostage crisis, with a Hindu priest being hacked to death with a machete.
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