hello. i'm natalie allen live from cnn center in atlanta. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. we continue to bring you breaking news out of bangladesh. this is "cnn newsroom." the bangladeshi prime minister says a siege at a capital is over. here is what we have learned so far. the outcome of this was somewhat

remarkable. bangladeshi officials say at least 13 hostages have been rescued. but authorities could not save everyone. the siege began when gunmen stormed a popular restaurant on friday evening in the diplomatic corridor of the capital. they held as many as 20 hostages and killed two police officers in a gun battle early on. hours later, some 14 hours later, police commandos moved in to end it all. there are conflicting reports whether one gunman was captured. but bangladeshi officials say six gunmen were killed. isis claims responsibility for the attack. but u.s. officials doubt that claim, thinking it sounds more like an al qaeda operation. i'll have some analysis on that from an expert in just a moment. but now let's go to cnn's andrew stevens. he has been with us for the many hours we've been covering this story, getting developments from hong kong and learning the

nationalities of the people inside that restaurant, andrew. >> that's right, natalie. we're starting to get a little bit more clarity on the nationals inside the restaurant, as you say, and some of the numbers. the numbers i should add at this stage are still not confirmed. we don't know exactly how many attackers there were. we don't know exactly how many hostages there were in that restaurant. but we are expecting a press conference any time now from the army. so hopefully, we'll be able to get some further details from that what we do hear from an earlier press conference given by the prime minister, sheik hussaini in bangladesh is there were 13 hostages rescued when the restaurant was stormed by security forces, up to 100 commandos involved in the storming of the restaurant. 13 hostages survived. six gunmen were killed and one was captured. so there is one of the gunmen in captivity at the moment. amongst the hostages we know now at least the nationalities of at

least three. two were sri lankans who escaped unharmed. the sri lankan high commissioner has been tweeting saying he has met the two survivors. they are alive and well. and the third person was a japanese national he rang the prime minister of japan to tell him one japanese national had been rescued. he was injured but the extent of his injuries are thought not to be too serious. he was one of eight japanese who were in the restaurant at the time of the attack. the fate of the other seven at this stage is unknown. but as i say, this stage, natalie, we still don't have confirmed numbers about the number of hostages and also the number of attackers. >> as far as this area, this specific area goes, one can perhaps understand why a popular european-style restaurant in more of an upscale area of the city where expats or foreigners

would be would be the target. >> well, yes. isis has claimed, and there has been some doubt cast on whether that's actually an authentic claim or not. but isis certainly has been telling its supporters, its proxies around the world to take action against soft targets around the world. and this would certainly classify itself as a soft target. it was in a -- the diplomatic area of bangladesh, of dhaka. the restaurant itself known as the holey artisan bakery was a bakery by day and an eatery by night. and it was very popular. it was european-style. it was popular amongst both the expats living and working in that area and also by young bangladeshis in particular who also frequented that area. so it was seen as a place where expats, where westerners would congregate, which have been

targeted obviously in the past by isis attacks. now security in those areas, in the diplomatic area would be higher than many other parts of the city. but still, nothing to repel between six and eight gunmen carrying assault weapons and by the sounds of it also grenades. so once they got into that restaurant, the police tried to attack them. there was a firefight during which two police were killed. one a senior member, a senior member of the local police station. and up to 45 other people injured. we don't know how many were police and how many were bystanders. this happened around 8:30, 9:00 in the evening on friday. it is ramadan. in the evening, muslims break fast. they get together to eat. and this would have been, according to some people, an even more busy time than would be normal on a friday night in that area, because it was ramadan. but certainly the remarkable

side of this, natalie, is still the fact that given the firepower that was involved and the hostages -- the hostage takers' apparent intentions, that for 13 people to be rescued, we don't know the condition of all of them, how serious, but for 13 to be rescued alive in itself is quite remarkable. >> it certainly is. we'll talk more about it now with our guests. andrew stevens in hong kong. thanks again. let's get more analysis on what has happened there in bangladesh and the result and who was behind this. roger shanahan joins me now. he is an associate professor with australian national university's national security college. and he is live via skype from sydney. roger, we'll get into more about who might have been perhaps behind this. but it does seem remarkable after some 14 hours that these terrorists are still holed up there, and hostages were alive. what do you make of this outcome

after so many hours of not knowing anything? >> well, suddenly it's positive in so far as some hostages survived the attack, and what we're seeing in the past from these kind of hostage situations is that the chances of survival of people taken by these kind of groups has been low in the past. so that has to be a net positive. but the fact that if it is islamic state, they haven't in the past, although there are always exceptions, they haven't in the past tended to hold on to hostages in these kind of situations. they tend to have the view that they're there to kill people. their direction or their inspiration is to kill people. so the fact that they took hostages and that hostages have survived is unusual in these kind of cases. >> right.

so does that show doubt for you that even though isis is claiming responsibility that they were behind this since al qaeda also operates on the indian subcontinent, and the two, of course, trying to get more attention than the other. >> well certainly i think we're going to have to wait until we know more information. but the kind of activities or the terrorist acts that have happened in bangladesh over the past 12 to 24 months have been really small scale individual attacks on people using fairly basic implements. this is a step up in the degree of complexity that we've seen in the past. so it would appear to indicate an organization with some -- at least some organizational structure. on the one hand, we have seen islamic state, islamic states spokesperson calling for attacks against westerners, particularly

during ramadan. and we've seen that occur in the past in istanbul and yemen, in lebanon and in france and perhaps in the united states. this would follow that pattern. so that's the kind of evidence that might lend us to believe that the islamic state inspired if not directed. and also the fact that islamic state media organizations have claimed it. on the other hand, as you pointed out, al qaeda in the indian subcontinent is and has been active. but based purely on what we know at the moment, you would have to learn towards an islamic state inspired style attack. >> and although thankfully people were rescue and the gunmen died, this does signal a new day for bangladesh. this is unprecedented. and the government for some time has been in denial that perhaps it had a cell working in its

country. >> well certainly you're correct in that. what we've seen before individual attacks against bloggers, against people from lgbt, against hindu and catholic priests. individuals using fairly basic weaponry, machetes, a pistol, attacks in ones or twos against individual targets. this is a significant advancement in the kind of actions that's been taken. and i think the bangladeshi government, there is no way of avoiding the fact that they have to acknowledge that there is a cell of radical islamists in their country. and if they're capable of having prosecuted one of these attacks, they're certainly capable of prosecute mortgage in the future. >> sadly that's true. rodger shanahan talking with me from sydney. thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >> earlier i spoke with steve

moore. he is a cnn law enforcement contributor and a fbi special agent. >> when you hear that 100 of the rab guys went in against six terrorists, don't think that it was 100 guns against six because you have to go through -- in through three or four entrances at the most, maybe. you might get 12 guns on the hostages or on the hostage takers at one time. you are not -- it's not going to be 100 against six because you're stacked way back. the guys in the back can't shoot. so this was -- this was certainly by all appearances by what i'm hearing and going by statistics alone, this is an amazing, an amazing assault. >> absolutely. you had said that this rab had been trained in part by u.s. officials who assisted them. and they had a good reputation as far as being able to perform there job. i want to ask you, the fact that

you waited until daylight hours, and sat through the darkness, did that have any significance in the timing to you? >> interesting to me. again, my curiosity is piqued on this. fbi hostage teams, and most fbi swat teams are hostage rescue-oriented. we liked to operate at night. we liked to operate under cover of darkness when that was in our favor. it is possible that the bangladeshi rab operates much more effectively in daylight. i do believe daylight operations give some of the advantage back to the hostage takers. but i can't sit here and argue with what they did. i'm going with the numbers. and it appears to me that whatever choice they made was appropriate based on what i'm hearing. >> and as you talk, we're

looking at this, you know, heavy weaponry that they brought in there, fortified vehicles and such. they weren't messing around when they decided to move in. and i also wanted to ask you, since you know that terrorists historically are wanting to kill as many people as possible, and have a death wish for themselves as well, what were they doing sitting there, these hours, perhaps, they're alive, and there are hostages that are alive. >> i don't know. seriously, this calls into question at least in my mind the level of training that these hostage takers had. i'm thinking that they were not battle hardened people off the iraqi front. they appeared -- when the rab came in and experienced suicidal terrorist would have turned his guns not towards the rab, but

would have turned his guns towards the hostages, as horrible as that sounds, it appears that they got into a 15-minute gun battle with the rab, which is not how isis usually acts. which is not how al qaeda usually acts. they are in it for the body count. and so, yes, i'm -- i'm -- i suspect we're going to learn a lot from this because it didn't follow right down the list of things we know to be true about isis and al qaeda. >> right. they didn't know when they were going in. did they have bombs, did they have suicide vests. apparently not. they did lob some grenades at the beginning. and that's how many people got injured. but the fact that they didn't have suicide vests says something. >> that's -- that's interesting to me. you know, and everybody is going back and forth. al qaeda versus isis. the fact that they used off the

shelf, off the shelf explosives rather than isis who usually creates their own, their tatp. they make it like apparently they did in istanbul last week. they make it themselves. and then they -- it's a blitz attack and they kill and kill. and they tend not to get into hostage situations. this could be a sign that it was al qaeda. the thing about al qaeda, though, is they don't -- they frown on killing innocent islam adherents. it could be that part of the reason that a lot of hostages weren't killed is that it could be al qaeda and they refrained from killing muslims. i don't know. but these, again, a lot of people are going to be spending a lot of years trying to figure out what is going on here. >> well, as we mentioned earlier, we're expecting a news

conference from bangladesh. and perhaps we will learn more in the next hour or so. that was steve moore with me a short while ago. after a short break, the latest in the turkey airport attack. we have the story of one victim who was in istanbul to save his son from isis. also, a series of attacks in the west bank. the israeli government's response and what israel wants from the international community.

if you're just joining us, again, a remarkable ending to a hostage standoff in bangladesh. commandos after 14 hours ended a hostage drama, storming a restaurant in dhaka that had been targeted by attackers. bangladeshi officials say at least 13 hostages were freed, and the military says six gunmen were shot dead. the prime minister adds one attacker was captured.

up to eight gunmen have been holding as many as 20 people inside the holey artisan bakery. that's in dhaka's diplomatic corridor. it's believed some of the hostages were foreigners. local news outlets and witnesses reported they heard explosions as well as it all ended, those may have perhaps been part of a security cleanup as officials cleared the building. it all started friday night local time as the terrorists lay siege to the cafe, which was popular among expats and the diplomatic community there, a european-style restaurant. two police officers who tried to get into the restaurant early on were killed in a gun battle. and 40 people were wounded at that time as well. isis, again claiming responsibility. but a u.s. official told cnn al qaeda is also a possible culprit.

we look back at the terrorist attack in istanbul now. a u.s. congressman says a notorious terrorist from russia organized the attacks on istanbul's airport earlier this week. one of the 43 victims was this man, he was chief of pediatrics at a tunisian military hospital and a professor of medicine. senior international correspondent nema alp bagar has more about him and the attackers. the men who orchestrated this horror and unleashed it tuesday may now be known. go of the suicide bombers who carried out the plot are being named by turkey's state agency. citing an anonymous prosecution source, it reports rakim bulgarov and vadim osmanov carried out the attacks.

as for the man who directed the operation, u.s. officials tell cnn akhmed chatayev, an isis lieutenant from chechnya is likely behind the plot. >> he travelled to syria on many occasions and then became one of the top lieutenants in the minister for war isis operations. >> chatayev is notorious with terror networks going by the nickname ahmed one-arm. >> he was missing one arm, used that, reportedly used that fact to argue when he went to europe to get refugee status. he said i have been tortured by the russians. the u.s. placed him on the terrorist list just last year. but he has been around for a long time. >> reporter: investigators are digging in. trying to find out more about the men seen running through the terminals brandishing weapons and detonating suicide bombs. turkey's president today condemning their actions and vowing to fight. ooh >> translator: terror and terrorists do not have religion, a nation, a motherland.

we are going to fight them with our soldiers, with our police, and with our village guards. >> reporter: 24 people, including 15 foreigners have now been detained according to turkish state media. police are also asking local residents about the security image showing the three men believed to be suspects. turkish authorities told us they believe the three attackers holed up for a month in an a apartment in a district in istanbul. the three men they say came directly from raqqah. as the investigation unfolds, families are burying their loved ones. he knew isis all too well. his son had reportedly joined the group as a medic last year. a family friend says bayoudh has been in istanbul to help negotiate his son's rescue from the terror group only to have extremists take his life instead.

>> what a terrible loss, and so many families are hurting right now. there are so many stories like that doctor right there. we have a heartbreaking story of one of the youngest victims of the bombing, a palestinian girl who escaped but in her mother's arms she lost a parent. >> reporter: 3-year-old rafif survived the horror of tuesday's attack. her mother nasreen did not. no one can explain what happened or where her mother. members of turkey's palestinian community are taking care of rafif, keeping her distracted and smiling. her father can barely speak. he lost his wife. his friend hamad lost his wife too. hamad is still in hospital in critical condition. his 3-year-old son rayan is on life support. the two palestinian families

arrived from saudi arabia where they lived for a short holiday in istanbul as they prepared to leave the airport, the terrorists struck. rafif was in her mother's arms when nasreen was shot dead. rafif was hit by shrapnel in her leg. >> translator: they can't say they came to fight a military and oppressors. they walked amongst us. they could see children. the family like so many here are muslim. "people who claim to be muslims with no mercy. i will teach my daughter not to hate, to love everyone. i will give her the best life, he says. on thursday night, marwan returned to the airport to put his wife's coffin on a plane. he led an islamic prayer for the dead. marwan had promised nasreen he

would take her home to the palestinian territories to celebrate the muslim festival next week with her family. instead they will gather to mourn her. cnn, istanbul. israel says its aircraft have targeted hamas sites in gaza after a rocket fired from the palestinian territory hit an israeli city near its border. we're seeing video of the rocket strike now. citing government sources, the jerusalem post reported the rocket hit an empty preschool. no physical injuries were reported, but the building sustained significant damage. the rocket attack followed israel sealing off parts of the west bank. the lockdown is in response to a series of attacks on israeli there's, including the stabbing death of a u.s.-israeli teen in as she slept in a settlement.

the grip around hebron is tightening. israel says it's having to respond to an increase in violence in the west bank. orrin lieberman reports on several deadly attacks by palestinians that have prompted the idea to move in. >> reporter: the last friday of ramadan has turned into a violent day in the west bank. although it never quite fully quieted down here after the dale alive attacks of late last year, we haven't seen a day like this in months. a number of attacks focus around the southern west bank where tensions are generally very high between israelis and palestinians. in response to this sudden uptick, the israeli military sent two more battalions into the west bank and ordered a closure around hebron, the largest city in the west bank to prevent more attacks. humanitarian and medical access will be allowed. but other access will be severely restricted. so let's go through these attacks. friday afternoon, a shooter opened fire on a car of israelis near the settlement killing a

father and sending his wife and two of his teenaged kids to the hospital. earlier friday, a palestinian woman was shot and killed when israeli military says she attempted to stab a border police officer near a site holy to jews and muslims in hebron. and a palestinian man died following clashes between palestinian protesters and israeli forces near jerusalem. the palestinian ministry of health says he died after inhaling tear gas used on protesters. this uptick began thursday morning with the murder of 13-year-old american-israeli halal ariel as she slept in her bed in a settlement. her attacker a palestinian teenager from a nearby village was shot and killed at the scene. hundreds turned out for the funeral of this young girl. prime minister benjamin netanyahu called on the world to condemn the attacks and promised to demolish the home of the attacker. oren liebermann, cnn, jerusalem. when we come back, our top story, the terror attack in bangladesh and how it all ended.

that's right after this break. you're watching cnn live coverage. re water? with sodastream® you turn plain water into sparkling water in seconds. and because it's so delicious, you'll drink 43% more water every day. sodastream®. love your water.

if you're just joining us, the latest on the siege in dhaka, bangladesh which is finally over after many, many hours. army troops rescued hostages who have been held in a cafe for more than 13 hours. gunmen stormed the restaurant in dhaka's diplomatic corridor friday night. military officials say they killed six attackers. there are conflicting reports over whether or not one was captured. in the beginning of this siege, the gunmen killed two police officers who tried to move in on the restaurant and wounded 40

other people with grenades. isis claims responsibility for this attack. but u.s. officials believe al qaeda in the indian subcontinent was behind it. in the past hour, we heard from an official in bangladesh. the prime minister said what bangladesh must do to root out terror. >> translator: we don't want these terrorists in bangladesh. 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. >> the prime minister last hour. let's go to cnn's andrew stevens. he has been helping us with all the developments from hong kong. and a first statement from the government, andrew, after many, many hours of having to deal with this. >> that's right, natalie. there had been a media blackout for a long time during that

siege, which went off at 12 hours before the authorities or the police stormed the restaurants. so there had been a media blackout. and details have been very, very hard to fix, including how many attackers there were, and indeed how many hostages there were as well. but sheikh hasina underlying the fact that bangladesh hasn't seen anything like this in its past. there have been several attacks. al those attacks have targeted individuals, and they've been fairly crude attacks at that. chopped to death or hacked to death. these are people who are perceived to be enemies of the islamist state. but this, on this scale with six to eight gunmen, heavily armed, they had assault weapons. they had grenades. and they were coordinated enough to take on that restaurant and then keep the military at bay. there was a shoot-out involving the police in which two police died and 40 others were injured

followed by that standoff and the storming of the restaurant. we're starting to get to further details of the nationalities involved. at this stage, we still only know for sure two nationals -- there were three, three foreigners involved. that's the ones we know. the nationalities at this stage. two were sri lankan. they were unharmed according to the sri lankan high commission. and one japanese citizen who was among the hostages who were rescued. he did suffer injuries but we believe they are not life threatening. he was in the company of seven other japanese at the restaurant when the attack happened. and the fate of the other seven japanese at this stage are not known. the u.s. embassy has said that none of its staff were involved. they've all been accounted for. but apart from that, we still don't know any more details about the people who were the hostages, who survived and who didn't, natalie.

>> okay. hopefully we'll be hearing some identifications in the next 48 hours pressing on here. it was interesting during this long ordeal, andrew, and you've been with us for many, many hours covering this, there was a blackout after this first happened. and then eerie, eerie quiet for so many hours before all of the sudden we saw all kinds of official vehicles moving in. >> yes, there had been this blackout. and negotiations, if there were any negotiations at all, were at an impasse. we had one line from the government saying that negotiations, that authorities had attempted to negotiate with the gunmen but hadn't got anywhere. so for 12 hours, it was a standoff. the gunmen inside the cafe or the bakery and a very, very heavy police and military presence outside. a cordon of steel around the restaurant. eventually it was broken when

the authorities decided they could no longer wait. they went in there around about 7:00, between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning. so they went in there in daylight. and if you speak to the fbi, for example, they say they would prefer operating under the cover of darkness. but in dhaka, they decided that they would go in and go in hard, which they did. we understand it was up to 100 commandos involved in that storming of the holey artisan restaurant. so it was a very, very powerful storming to take on perhaps eight, up to eight attackers. we know that six attackers have been killed and one has been taken into custody. we don't know whether there is another at large or whether there was ever only seven. that's what we've been waiting for. but the media blackout perhaps not surprising given the fact that in the past live television, live reports have indicated to the gunmen, to the attackers inside a besieged

building exactly what is going on outside. so they denied them that opportunity to see what was going on outside by means of this total media blackout. which has obviously made it very hard to get full facts and information on the ground. but they're starting to come together now. we're expecting a news conference any minute now with the bangladesh military. and we're hoping to get a few more details, a bit more clarification on who was involve and what actually happened. >> thank you, andrew. yes. we just learned that that news conference has just started. as soon as we get translation, we'll start bringing the information to our viewers. because finally we're learning how this all played out. thank you, andrew stevens for us in hong kong. earlier my colleague jonathan mann spoke with journalist leone lakhani. she has flak in dhaka. she knows that restaurant and bakery very well where the terror attack took place. here are her thoughts. >> they're also concerned what this could mean. what this could mean to their everyday lives.

they've never had anything like this before. it's completely unprecedented. the government is very adamant that they don't have any al qaeda or isis or foreign extremist cells in the country. they've blamed previous targeted attacks in the past couple years on local groups. as we were hearing from your security expert, it doesn't matter whether they were local groups or foreign groups or groups inspired by foreign groups. at the end of the day, this attack was organized. it was an organized gun attack, and it means that they have to, the government has to address that there is an extremist problem of some sort on the ground. and they have to deal with it now, jonathan. >> and the target was such an unlikely one, the holy artisan calf faf.

would anyone you know ever feel threatened going to place like that in? is. >> not until today. it is a high profile target. it's a bakery. after 6:00 p.m. it turns into a restaurant. it's got a very european feel. it's got a garden. coffee, espressos. it's a very -- it's very unusual for dhaka specifically. and it attracted a lot of people. and they're in the area, quite an affluent area, as we've been saying. lots of expats, lots of diplomats in the area. so no, it was a very popular area. but we can see why it would be a target, because it was quite high profile. you had high profile people who went there. it was a high profile neighborhood. and as we've been saying, it's a very densely populated city, jonathan. so anything that happens in a cafe like that, which is high profile on its own, because of its customers and the area, and because it's in a diplomatic area, we can understand why it would be a target. but until today, no one would have suspected anything like this there on the ground,

jonathan. >> what about security? obviously you can't make every restaurant or cafe in bangladesh secure. but what kind of security measures were in place around that neighborhood? and how much of a second look is that going to require now? >> you know, there wasn't security in the sense that you have roadblocks or anything like that in front of cafes and restaurants until now. the security had been stepped up recently because of the attacks we've seen in the past couple of years, especially since last september when we saw an attack an italian expat as well as a japanese citizen later on in the year as well. so the government has stepped up security. and any way because it's a diplomatic area with lots of embassies around, there is a little bit more security than usual. but in terms of restaurants, shops, you wouldn't see, you know, roadblocks and police or

anything like that in a very -- in a big way. but i suspect that may change going forward. >> lona lakhani. a new day in bangladesh, sadly. we'll have more coming up here, plus from the u.s. election including donald trump's possible short list of running mates. "ow..." "are you okay?" "yeah, i just got charged for my credit monitoring.

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and welcome back. i'm natalie allen live in cnn center atlanta. the bangladeshi prime minister says a siege at a cafe in the capital is over. bangladeshi officials say at least 13 hostages have been rescued. the siege began when gunmen stormed a popular restaurant on friday evening in the diplomatic corridor. the attackers held as many as 20 hostages for hours and killed two police officers in a gun battle early on. there are conflicting reports as to whether one gunmen was captured. bangladeshi officials say six gunmen were killed. isis claims responsibility for the attack. but u.s. officials say it sounds more like an al qaeda operation. the u.s. presidential race, seven high profile names have emerged as possible running mates for donald trump.

the presumptive republican nominee says, quote, lots of people are interested. senior white house correspondent jim acosta has the latest on trump's short list for vice president. ♪ >> reporter: donald trump doesn't have a running mate just yet, but he does have a short list. a senior adviser tells cnn new jersey governor chris christie, former house speaker newt gingrich, indiana governor mike pence and bob corker, jeff session and john thune, plus oklahoma governor mary fallon are all under consideration. speculation is suddenly swirling around pence who is scheduled to meet with trump and is described by one top campaign aide as a dark horse coming down the track. a spokesman noted mr. donald trump is meeting with a number of republicans in the run-up to the gop convention, adding he has a good relationship with governor pence. it's a surprising development as pence endorsed ted cruz before the indiana primary, and seemed to tamp down expectations this week. >> i haven't talked to him about that topic. but my focus is here in the hoosier state and that's where

it will stay. >> reporter: despite trump's previous statements that he will reveal his pick at the convention, aides say it could come up sooner. in denver trump didn't say much about his vice presidential search, though he did give a shout out to sessions and began to fill out the convention program. >> i love my children. i love my children. my children are going to be speaking at the convention. my wife is going to be speaking at the convention. we're going to have -- we're going to have a great time. >> campaign officials hope the vip stakes will send the message that many republicans are rallying behind the presumptive nominee, despite the never trump movement. >> that game, they call themselves the never hash tag, the whatever. okay. well, i just call him republicans against trump, or r.a.t. for short. >> reporter: as trump's warm-up speaker, sarah palin ripped into his critics. >> it's really funny to me to

see the explody heads keep exploding over this movement, because it seems so obvious. trump win, america will win, because voters are so sick and tired of being betrayed. >> reporter: and trump tried to remind the party of what they're up against, pointing to bill clinton's controversial meeting with attorney general loretta lynch as hillary clinton is under an fbi investigation over her private e-mail server. >> i said no, no, you're kidding. i don't believe it. i thought somebody was joking. but it's not a joke. it's not a joke. it's a very serious thing. and to have a thing like that happen is so sad. that. >> could be a mexican plane up there. they're getting ready to attack. >> reporter: but gop insiders are still nervous that trump's sometimes racially tinged rhetoric is taking the party in the wrong direction, pointing to the real estate tycoon's response to a woman who took a jab at muslim tsa workers at a town hall in new hampshire. >> while aren't we putting our retirees, our military retirees in that border. get rid of this hijabs they

wear. i've seen them myself. >> we are looking at that. >> jeff sessions and newt gingrich may only been on the short list as a courtesy. senator thune one joked may be too tall to be tagged as a running mate. jim acosta, cnn, washington. hillary clinton's campaign war chest grew by $68 million last month. likely widening her financial lead over donald trump. donors wrote checks to the presumptive democratic nominee's campaign totalling more than $40 million. that was on top of the $44 million she already had on hand. another $28 million was raised that went to the democratic national committee and state democratic parties. trump's campaign has not yet released its fundraising totals for june. there is more fallout after that chance meeting between hillary clinton's husband, the former president, and a the u.s. attorney general.

loretta lynch claims it was no big deal, but now she is taking a big step back in the clinton e-mail investigation. cnn's pamela brown has that. >> reporter: fully expect to accept their recommendations. >> reporter: attorney general loretta a lynch said she will leave the decision of whether hillary clinton will be charged in the ongoing e-mail probe to the fbi in her career prosecutors. >> i will be accepting their recommendations and their plan for going forward. >> reporter: but she stopped short of completely removing herself from the case. the rare public announcement is an attempt to allay any concerns of political intervention after her impromptu 30-minute meeting with bill clinton monday night on the tarmac of the phoenix airport. a law enforcement official says the former president spotted lynch's plane on the tarmac and surprised her when he boarded her plane for a visit. >> we basically said hello, and i congratulated him on his grandchildren, as people tend to do. and it led to a conversation

about those grandchildren who do sound great. >> reporter: the unusual meeting causing a little firestorm of criticism from both republicans and democrats. >> i may have viewed it in a certain light. but the issue is how does it impact the work that i do or that the department of justice does. and i certainly wouldn't do it again. and because i think it has cast a shadow over what it should not, over what it will not touch. >> reporter: donald trump seizing on the opportunity to slam the clintons, tweeting the system is totally rigged. >> you know, when i first heard the story, i said no, no, you're kidding. i don't believe it. i thought somebody was joking. but it's not a joke. it's not a joke. it's a very serious thing. and to have a thing like that happen is so sad. and as you know, hillary is so guilty. she is so guilty. >> reporter: the impromptu meeting only galvanized republicans who have been calling for lynch to recuse herself, pointing in part to the long-standing relationship between the attorney general and the clintons. president clinton appointed

lynch to be u.s. attorney in the eastern district of new york in 1999. but lynch made clear a recusal isn't going to happen. >> a recusal would mean that i wouldn't even be briefed on what the findings are or the what the actions going forward would be. and while i don't have a role in those findings, in coming up with those findings or making those recommendations as to how to go forward, i'll be briefed on it. >> reporter: others attorneys general have made the decision to recuse themselves from high profile cases. alberto gonzalez did during the investigation into the firing of u.s. attorneys. and john ashcroft refused himself when the department of justice was investigating the leak of a cia officer's name. loretta lynch said she had already made this decision before her meeting with bill clinton. and typically an attorney general will accept the findings and recommendations from career prosecutors. what's unusual here is that she announced it publicly, and it's clear she wouldn't have done that had there been so much fallout over her meeting with bill clinton. pamela brown, cnn, washington.

we're getting new information about the terror attack in bangladesh and how it all a ended. we'll have a live report coming up next.

bangladeshi commandos have ended a long hostage drama, storming a restaurant in dhaka that had been targeted by attackers some 14 hours earlier. our andrew stevens is getting

some new information for us now. he is again live for us from hong kong. andrew? >> all right. sorry. i'm just getting some very latest information here, natalie. and it is -- it makes pretty grim reading too. there has been a news conference in dhaka. the military is holding that news conference. they say they've just declared the 20 hostages, 20 civilians died in that hostage siege at the restaurant. that means the number of, excuse me, hostages in the restaurant considerably higher than we had been led to believe, the media had been led to believe. we've been quoting numbers of around about 20 hostages. apparently inside that restaurant. but the number, if these are now correct, adds up to around 33. we know there were 13 hostages rescued alive. and now we've just been told that 20 hostages, or 20 civilian

bodies have been found. and it's -- it makes for even more grim reading. the bodies were found inside the hotel -- inside the restaurant, excuse me, and they had been killed with sharp objects, whether they had been hacked or stabbed to death. obviously a very, very grisly scene inside that restaurant. so 20 hostages, civilian hostages killed. it looks like they were hacked to death inside the restaurant, which is as about as bad as you can imagine it would be. 13 hostages, though, were rescued safely when the army stormed the restaurant around about 8:00 local time this morning. 12 hours after of that siege. a little bit less than 12 hours after that siege began. so that's where we are at the moment. i can tell you as far as the nationalities we know of at the

moment, a japanese citizen was among the hostages who were rescued. he was injured but his injuries we're told are not life threatening. this is coming from the japanese deputy chief minister of cabinet. and we've also heard from the sri lankan high commission, that two sri lankan nationals were also among those rescued. they are unharmed. that's according to an official from the sri lankan high commission who actually met them. as for the rest, the very grim toll of 20 civilian hostages who lost their lives in that siege, natalie. >> and the way that you describe, andrew, resembles more of these past attacks that bangladesh has seen of people being hacked to death. and here we were thinking or isis had claimed responsibility. but does this sound like isis? >> well, it does bear the hallmarks of what we have seen in the past.

in as much as how the victims were killed in the past there has been several incidents of targets, individuals who were targeted by islamic extremists, and they were hacked to death on their way to work and in their homes and various places. these are people. these have been leaders of religious minority groups in bangladesh. they've been secular bloggers. they've been members of the gay community have been targeted. people who are sort of seen as the enemy of the islamic state, if you like have, been targeted. and there have been several of these types of individual attacks. but nothing on this sort of scale. 20 people according to that press conference from the military hacked to death in that restaurant. the bangladesh government is only recently cracked down on what they said were islamic militants. and they rounded up some 14,000

people. but there was quite some skepticism about the type of people that they had rounded up. a lot of them were said to be common criminals and not extremists at all. but the government has been making more of an effort to deal with obviously what is now a major, major problem within the boundaries of bangladesh. now we have this attack which has taken the type of attack to a whole new level, natalie. >> absolutely. we were, you know, cheering the fact that there were hostages released. of course we still are. but this certainly is as you say some horrifically grim news. thank you, andrew stevens once again live for us in hong kong. so we'll continue to bring developments as we get them on this story we've been following now for many, many hours here at cnn. thank you so much for watching. we'll have another hour for you live here from atlanta in just a moment.

welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world you are watching cnn newsroom. i'm george howell. we continue to follow the breaking news out of the bangladeshi army says 20 civilians have been killed, hacked to death by attackers

with sharp weapons. a standoff in a cafe that lasted more than 13 hours. military officials have just held a news conference. gunmen stormed the restaurant in dhaka friday night. but the army says they killed six people. they were able to free 13, again, killing six of the gunmen. there are conflicting reports whether police captured one of the attackers. at the beginning of the siege, a gunmen killed two police officers and wounded 40 people. isis claims responsibility. but they believe al qaeda may have been behind this attack. earlier the prime minister of bangladesh said they must do what they can to root out terror. >> translator: we don't want these terrorists in bangladesh. this is a first in bangladesh. until now, they were committing individual murders. suddenly they created this type of