The death toll from the Dhaka cafe hostage crisis in Bangladesh has risen to 20 people, according to the army’s spokesman. All victims were foreigners.

“We’ve recovered 20 bodies. Most them had been brutally hacked to death with sharp weapons,” Brigadier General Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said.

He added that most of the victims were Japanese and Italian.
Earlier it was reported that a group of armed people have attacked a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka and taken hostages.

On Friday, Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for hostage taking inside a cafe located in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter.

A special police operation to free the hostages has finished, according to local media reports. 

A total of 13 people have been rescued, while six attackers were killed and one captured, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, as quoted by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper. 

“Three of those who were rescued were foreigners, including one Japanese and two Sri Lankans,” the army spokesman said.

The Bangladeshi police lost two officers during the operation, according to reports.

It is not clear at what point the foreign hostages were killed, but they do appear to have been specifically targeted. Army officials said the victims had been killed in the early morning, prior to the raid.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack and said security officials arrested one of the militants.

“Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee,” Ms 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,” Ms Hasina said. “They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.”

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadis activity online. 

-Agencies