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 situation.

what they did here was a very heinous act. >> cnn's andrew stevens is following it all live in hong kong. the details have been slow to come out of bangladesh since this attack. but now learning again that 20 civilians killed attackers using sharp weapons. what more do you know? >> little more at this stage, george. but horrific scenes inside that restaurant, as you can only imagine. when the police did storm the restaurant around about 12 hours after the siege began, there was a period of intense gunfire, followed by silence. the next thing we heard were explosions most likely connected to security forces securing the area. but they have made this horribly grisly find of 20 of the hostages all dead, hacked to death, as you say. i'm just looking at the line

here. they were all killed due to sharp weapons. that is coming from the military, who just finished a press conference now. earlier it had looked more hopeful. because we had heard from the prime minister herself who had spoken to the japanese prime minister that 13 hostages had been rescued alive from that restaurant. and we have been working on the assumption on reports there were only about 20 hostages actually in that restaurant when the gunmen attacked. but now obviously it looks closer to 33. 13 alive, 20 dead. as far as nationalities are concerned, we know for sure there was a japanese man who was amongst the survivors. he was rescued. a hostage who was rescued. he was injured, but we don't think severely, certainly not life threatening. and two sri lankans rescued

unharmed. they were part of the 13. we the breakdown, how many foreign nationals were at the restaurant, how many were bangladeshis. in a restaurant in a popular part, up market part of dhaka, it is in a diplomatic area. it was a bakery by day and a restaurant by night. it was frequented by ex-pats and bangladeshis. this is the last friday monday of ramadan. it was break fast time. i can also tell you that the military have been talking about the sort of weapons that the attackers used. and perhaps surprisingly they are talking about ak-22. this is a ..22 caliber semiautomatic weapon, which is a small caliber. not a full sort of assault rifle. but, again, many of the reports have been saying the gunmen had.

the military is now saying it was smaller caliber rifles. six of the attackers died when the military stormed that restaurant. the confusion about whether there is one attacker who was taken into captivity, as far as we are aware, that line came from the prime minister herself. she told the japanese prime minister that one of the attackers had been taken captive. so that's what we have at the moment, george. obviously a very, very disturbing and grisly scene there and something that the prime minister said herself. bangladesh hasn't seen an attack on this scale before. they had been limited to attacks on individuals. this was an a at a restaurant full of diners of all races, of all religions. and now we know that 20 of those diners who went out to break fast on a friday night.

>> you talk about the targeted attacks, andrew. like the attack on roy, secular bloggers, religious bloggers, people who say things contrary to what many of the islamist believes. you pointed out this attack was happening on a much longer scale. when it comes to determining who exactly is behind this particular attack, whether it is isis or al qaeda, there is some uncertainty in the aftermath. >> definitely, george. if indeed one of the gunmen has been taken alive, obviously they will be a potential fountain of information, who is behind it, what planning was involved, and the networks involved. one of our guests, a former fbi counterterrorism specialist said they will get a lot of

information from that person. as far as who it is, isis has claimed responsibility. and very quickly claimed responsibility. and in some quarters of the security community, claimed responsibility a little bit too quickly. they say that isis in bangladesh is much less established than al qaeda. that the al qaeda group is known as al qaeda in india. it has been operating in bangladesh for longer. it is a bigger network and better organized. it is almost a turf war between these two extremist islamist groups you to establish control. so with either side committing these hideous crimes the way that they are killing their victims, at this stage we can't say for sure which one is which. it is obviously now absolutely huge problem for the government

to deal with this. the prime minister says there's no room for this in bangladesh. but to actually root it out and to contain it. because destroying it completely will be virtually impossible to contain it. it will take a lot of effort. they have already rounded up 14,000 people. it's happened. the scale of the problems that now face the government. and also the general security situation in bangladesh itself, george. >> 20 civilians killed in dhaka in this hostage standup. andrew stevens following details. thank you for reporting. we'll stay in touch with you as we learn more developments throughout the day. we spoke to a retired fbi special agent to get his take on what happened. listen. >> when you hear that 100 of the rab guys went in against six terrorists, don't think it was

100 guns against six. you have to go in through three or four entrances at the most maybe. you might get 12 guns on the hostage takers at one time. 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 certainly a -- by all appearances, by what i'm hearing and going by statistics alone, this is an amazing assault. >> absolutely. you said this rab had been trained in part by u.s. officials who assist them. and they had a good reputation as far as being able to perform their job. i want to ask you, the fact that they waited until daylight hours and sat through the darkness, did that have any significance in the timing to you? >> it's interesting to me. again, my curiosity is piqued on

this. fbi hostage teams, and most fbi s.w.a.t. teams are hostage rescue oriented. we like to operate at night. we like to operate undercover 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 gives 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 make was appropriate based on what i'm hearing. >> as you talk, we are looking at this heavy weaponry they brought in there, fortified vehicles and such. they weren't messing around when they decided to move in. i also want to ask you, since we 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, an experienced suicidal terrorist would have turned his guns not towards the rab but towards the hostages, as horrible as that sounds. it appears 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. so, yes, 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. did they have bombs? did they have suicide vests in apparently not. they lob some grenades in the beginning and that's how many people got injured. but the fact that they didn't have suicide vests is interesting. >> that's interesting to me. everybody is going al qaeda versus isis. the fact that they used off-the-shelf explosives rather than isis who usually creates their own, tatp. they make it apparently like they did in istanbul last week.

they make it themselves. it's a blitz attack. 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, they frown on killing innocent eus hammists. so it could be a lot of the reason a lot of hostages or weren't killed, it could be al qaeda and they refrained from killing muslims. i don't know. again, a lot of people are going to spend a lot of years trying to figure out what's going on here. >> keeping in mind, that was taken from natalie allen speaking with that cnn analyst. again, what we know at this point, 20 civilians killed, hacked to death by these attackers using sharp weapons. and 13 hostages freed in this situation.

let's hear now from someone who knows the bakery where this attack happened. my colleague jonathan mann spoke with a journalist who gave us this context. >> they are also concerned about what this could mean, what this could mean to their everyday lives. they have never had anything like this before. it is completely unprecedented. the government has been very adamant that they don't have al qaeda or isis or foreign extremist cells in the country. they blamed previous attacks, targeted attacks in the past couple of years on local groups. as you 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 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. >> the target was such an unlikely one. holey artisan bakery cafe. would anyone you know have ever felt threatened or in danger going to a place like that in dhaka? >> not until today. i'm sure from now on they would. and it is a high profile target. it's a bakery. after 6:00 p.m., it turns into a restaurant. it has a european feel, a garden, coffee, espresso. it attracted a lot of people. in the area, quite an affluent area. lots of ex-pats. lots of diplomats in the area. so, no, it was a very popular area. we can see why it would be a target because it was quite high profile. you had high profile people that went there.

it was a high profile neighborhood. it is a very densely populated city, jonathan. anything that happens in a cafe like that, which is high profile on its own because of its customers and the areas, and it is in a diplomatic area. 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 road blocks or anything in front of cafes and restaurants until now. the security had been stepped up recently because of the attacks we have seen in the past couple of years, especially since last september we saw an attack on an italian ex-pat as well as a

japanese citizen in the year as well. so the government has stepped up security in any way because it is diplomatic area with lots of embassies. there is more security than usual. in terms of restaurants, shops, you wouldn't see, you know, road blocks and police or anything like that. we have new information on who authorities think okay traited tuesday's terror attacks. the story next. ll of his gold! and take all of his gold! ya! and hide it from the crew! ya...? squuuuack, they're all morons anyway! i never said that. they all smell bad too. no! you all smell wonderful! i smell bad! if you're a parrot, you repeat things. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. squuuuack, it's what you do.

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welcome back to cnn newsroom. covering the breaking news, we know 20 civilians were killed in a siege in bangladesh, a siege that lasted 13 hours. they were killed with sharp weapons. 13 hostages were rescued. the standoff began when gunmen stormed a popular restaurant on friday evening in the dhaka diplomatic quarter. there are conflicting reports as

to whether one gunmen was captured. bangladeshi officials say six gunmen were killed. isis is claiming responsibility for this attack. but u.s. officials say it sounds more like an al qaeda operation. we will continue to follow this story. want to update you on the terror attack in tuesday. the man who orchestrated tuesday's attack was a top isis soldier. turkish news has identified two other attackers. officials believe they are from uzbekistan and kyrgyzstan. they have detained two dozen people in connection with this investigation. following the story, claire sebastian joins us live from moscow. good to have you with us. what more do we know at this

point about those suspects? >> well, george, we're not getting much from russian authorities on whether or not the bombers themselves came from russ russia. we're not getting much information on the man who organized the attack. this man's name was ahmed chetaya, from chechnya. he cut his teeth as a fighter, perhaps even as an extremist in the late '90s and 2000s. we know he was placed on the sanctions lisbie last year by not only the u.s. treasury but united nation is security council. more information emerging from those announcements. he was born in 1980. a very young man. he was a top leader in isis. he commanded at the time being on the sanctions list in october of last year. he commanded 130 militants. also more details about the man

himself. not only did he have just one arm, he had also just one leg. we have been hearing the nickname ahmed one-arm. he gained status in austria and has believed to move around a fair bit. the russian ministry are saying he had georgian citizenship but left to go to syria in 2015. so that's where we last heard him. and his alleged involvement in the istanbul attack. >> and authorities continuing to learn more from people in this. we'll stay in touch with you. for the families of those who lost loved ones, as they continue to mourn, we have a heartbreaking story of the youngest victims. a young palestinian girl who

escaped with her life but lost a parent. she survived the horror of tuesday's attack. her mother did not. no one can explain what happened or where her mother is. member of turkey's palestinian community are keeping her distracted and smiling. her father can barely speak. he lost his wife. hammad lost his wife too. his 3-year-old son on life support. the two palestinian families arrived from saudi arabia where they lived for a short holiday inn istanbul. as they prepared to leave the airport, the terrorists struck. she was in her mother's arm when her mother was shot dead. they can't say they came to fight the military and pressers. they walked amongst us. they could see children, he says.

the families, 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, he returned to the airport to put his wife's coffin on a plane. he led an islamic prayer for the dead. he promised he would take her home to the palestinian territories to celebrate the muslim festival next week with her family. instead, they will mourn her. coming up, more of our breaking news coverage of the terror attacks in bangladesh.

the latest after the break.

welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. this is cnn newsroom. i'm george howell. we continue to follow breaking news out of bangladesh. 20 people were killed by attackers who used sharp weapons in a hostage standoff in dhaka. the gunmen took over an artisan bakery friday night. the troops later rescued 13 hostages and shot six gunmen to end that siege. it is unclear whether one of the attackers was captured. the cafe is in the diplomatic quarter. it is believed some of the hostages were foreigners.

police, two police officers were killed in a gun battle with the attackers. 40 people were wounded. isis has claimed responsibility for the attack, though there are questions whether isis is truly behind it. more from andrew stevens following these developments live in hong kong this hour. andrew, these are grim new details we are learning here within the last hour. 20 civilians killed, hacked to death. what more have you learned there? >> well, this method of execution if you would like, george, is something we have seen before in bangladesh. but just not anything like the scale we have just witnessed. there have been repeated attacks on individuals throughout the country. and those individuals have been targeted by extremists and they have been killed through being hacked to death basically. now we are seeing that on a much, much bigger scale. we know the attackers got into the restaurant about 9:00 friday evening, held the police force

at bay for 12 hours or so. very little negotiation was carried out during that time as far as we know. then the police went in in force, something like 100 commandos. they are now able to rescue some 13 hostages. and the information we were getting at the time suggested there were only about 20 hostages altogether in the holey artisan bakery. it turns out there were many, many more. when police did clear the area and they secured that restaurant, another 20 people lay dead, basically hacked to death. and the cache of weapons found were small weapons, ak-22, a ..22 caliber, which is a small size gun. these guns are used for mainly hunting birds or squirrels in

the states. these are not full assault rifles by any means at all. they found a cache of sharp domestic weapons is how they described it. so a bloody and hideous scene at the places as they began to clean out that restaurant of these people who had been hacked to death. as far as the nationalities of who the victims are, we don't know at this stage. what we do know only is that there was one japanese citizen who was among those rescued who was injured but not severely. and two is sri lankans rescued. they were unharmed. that information from the sri lanka high mission. the embassy said none of its staff were at the restaurant at the time of the attack. that's really where at the moment. the method of the execution is something we have seen before. but just not on this scale. and for 12 hours, those

attackers were in that restaurant while a cordon of police and commandos were on the outside debating when to go in. as i said, it doesn't sound there were much negotiations. we are still waiting for further details on this. there have been press conferences, but we are still waiting for a lot more details. we do think, though, this is according to the prime minister herself, that there is one captive who was one of the gunmen. six were killed in the storming of the restaurant and one was captured. that coming from the prime minister of bangladesh. so there is at least one of the gunmen in cap who no doubt security forces hope he will provide information behind this, how it was planned and perhaps how deeply entrenched the network of these particular

terrorists are in bangladesh. >> andrew stevens following developments live in hong kong with us. andrew, thank you so much for your reporting. we'll stay in touch with you. i want to get some clarity on this. an expert with chatham house in london. it's good to have you with us this hour. thank you for your time. first, i have to talk about how this attack ended. two officers lost their lives. we are still learning details about those injured and they were hacked to death. what do you make of this? >> the hacking to death, the manner in which it is carried out is not new to bangladesh. for the past two years we have seen numerous against individuals where this has amend. however i think what is different about this attack, the

targets are definitely the western community. it was a very exclusive area in dhaka which was targeted. and the scale of on it. the hostage taking is quite unprecedented in bangladesh. in a accepts it sense it look l isis but the manner in which homegrown militants in bangladesh. so this is definitely an escalation. >> it is still unclear again who is behind this attack exactly. but you do bring up these individual, targeted attacks to is secular bloggers, like roy who lived here in the atlanta area was killed there in bangladesh. gay people. people who have been hacked to death in similar style. when it comes to dealing with and rooting out terrorism there,

the government has received some criticism about not doing enough. at times, having mixed messages in taking care of the problem there. >> absolutely. i think what we have seen is the whole issue of insurgency, radicalized islam. whatever name you give it, it hasn't been a proper law and order issue. there's widespread impugnity for the individual attacks that have happened so far. only in one cases that the person is attacked, the people charged have been -- the case has reached prosecution. in no other case hosni proper investigation, prosecutions, convictions. the failure of the government is really in a little bit sizing the issue and putting the blame on the opposition party for any such problem. as we know in this particular

case, they had intelligence about certain plots by international domestic terrorists groups but not enough was done from a security concern to address it. this is a real sort of democracy and failure of the state to respond effectively. >> and i do want to make sure we are very clear with you. it is still unclear who carried out attacks this day in bangladesh. and no connection to the targeted attacks we have seen the last year or so. certainly the fact that these victims were hacked to death it is something that draws comparison. thank you so much for your time and we'll stay in touch with you. >> thank you. coming up, a major election is under way in australia. and this one is one to watch. voters could end up with their sixth prime minister in six years. "i'm making smoothies!"

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welcome back to cnn newsroom. i'm george howell. we continue to follow the news from dhaka, bangladesh. attackers killed 20 in the city's diplomatic quarter. the army was able to free a dozen of hostages, though. they have improvised explosive devices and sharp domestic weapons. and ak-22 rifles. isis has claimed responsibility. u.s. officials say al qaeda in the indian subcontinent seems to be more likely behind this attack. australia's foreign minister is condemning the terror attacks in bangladesh and she has been getting updates from officials in bangladesh. australians are voting in their first national election since 2013 with all seats up for grabs. the prime minister is hoping to remain in his job.

a close vote would mean he won't get the outright majority he needs to make economic reforms there. following the situation and joining us live villa skype from sydney, a national columnist with the daily telegraph. you're with us on cnn. thank you for your time. i want to ask you first of all, voters could end up with their sixth prime minister in six years. what can we expect to see in this election and what's at stake? >> there is a lot at stake here, george, absolutely correct. malcolm turnbull, the current opposition leader have led politics before. the game has been historically long. they asked for a double dissolution. he asked for both the house and the senate seats to be vacated two months ago now.

we have what seems to be an in terminable campaign. and voting stopped just 40 minutes ago. the polls closed. and the results are coming in. of course it's far too early to tell what the trend will be. the last poll showed a slender majority as opposed to 49.5. malcolm turnbull, the prime minister, needs a stronger victory than that to assert his authority over the party. and of course the opposition leader will be hoping for any sort of victory because there are already rumblings about his latest ship should he fail in this task. >> so when you talk to -- when you hear from voters about this election, high stakes. what is the sense among people?

>> the sense here is uncertainty about economic conditions. and i think this is, you know, a global phenomenon in western nations at the moment. there's been so much change, economic turmoil. we see this across the u.s., across europe, and probably, you know, one of the factors behind the brexit vote in the uk. it's very interesting hear. the principle considerations, the stability of the economy, the employment prospects for both young and old people. labor has run a ferocious, horrendous scare campaign about the national health in the past week, alleging that the government is trying to privatize the medicare system, which is our national health. well, this is, as the prime

minister has pointed out on numerous occasions, inasmuch as national health as you and your viewers would realize is not a profit-making exercise. it is a loss-making thing. to privatize something, you need to see a profit in it. >> indeed. when we talk about the sense of this particular election, it does look tight. are we getting any indication as to who might have a slight advantage or lead at this point? >> people always say that the incumbent government should enjoy a lead. but inasmuch as both political party leaders were responsible for politically assassinating their predecessors, turnbull ousted tony abbott last september. and had a hand in deposing both of the two labor prime

ministers, wright and gillard. neither have come to this party with clean hands. both of them are looking for a significant victory so that they can claim a mandate to govern and to boost their own popularity. >> piers akerman, thank you. we'll be right back after the break with more of the breaking news we're following out of bangladesh. stay with us.

welcome back to cnn newsroom. we continue following breaking news out of bangladesh. 20 victims found inside of a cafe in dhaka under siege for 13 hours. the army said they were killed with sharp weapons and they were -- many of them foreigners. 13 other hostages were rescued. gunmen stormed a popular restaurant friday evening in dhaka. commandos later raided that restaurant and that ended the standoff. bangladeshi officials say six gunmen were killed.

isis has claimed responsibility, but u.s. officials say it sounds more likely to be an al qaeda operation. to talk more about this attack, we bring in hamadi villa skype, an investigative journalist for the guardian. good to have you with us. first of all, i want to ask you, you were there. 13 hours the standoff that went through the night and well into the morning. what all did you see? >> it was cordoned off a long way. and police had been trying to negotiate with the gunmen inside. they had warned the media to stay off the limits so they can launch the operation, which they did eventually in the morning. it's a good thing they had been able to rescue 13 persons there. at one point, a lot of the

people waiting outside and had lost hopes that they would findly their dear ones alive. pause there was no sort of communication from inside from any of the people. >> it is important to point out, though, 13 hostages were freed. pretty remarkable when you consider many of thesis lambist groups go in to kill as many people as possible. >> if you have noticed there were conditions that the terrorist groups were putting out to the people who eventually came to light. that is the information we got very recently. what's important is this offensive the forces launched were to be appreciated for the fact that they have been able to rescue persons alive. >> and that is remarkable that

they were able to be rescued alive. at the same time, though, you say they had somewhat of a test to be able to be -- >> there are also conflicting statements. it's not just isis. it's the al qaeda laws as we have come across statements in reuters and other news agencies as well. claims by the international outfits are not as significant because it's nonetheless a terrorist attack which have been carried out. and that needs to be addressed with proper investigation, which is most important. >> indeed. and you bring up the difference between al qaeda and the indian subcontinent and isis, these two groups really in competition with each on other to maintain viability. i wanted to ask you from what -- please. two right ahead. >> i was telling you last evening in our other interview, the existence of al keita and i.s., even if it is remotely

they are able to create the fear and draw the publicity of the people they have been seeking. that's what they are being successful at doing. that is making people more scared. >> that does seem to be their main objective. i want to ask you from what you witnessed through the night and into the morning when it came to these commandos, dozens of people went in armed. what was that like? how did they carry this out? >> well, my interview with the police on duty there, it was shocked by the efforts they had made not knowing the possession on of weapons these gunmen had with them. early in the morning they had ieds, ak-22 weapons with them. that's quite remarkable possession of automatic weapons. and these policemen were

initially charged they had literally no idea what they were going for, what they were facing. eventually a lot of these people were injured. 20 policemen were injured, 2 policemen killed. afterwards i met with survivors who have come out of the place who were inside and initially thought it was bandits outside. they went upstairs, hid themselves expecting these people would possibly leave after looting money and valuables. but when they didn't and they went upstairs and started firing from the terrorists, that's what worried them even more. and they were firing towards the policemen. they were clearly prepared to go for an attack with the people, with the policemen over there, not just a mob. it suggested they were ready and they're not trying to come out of the place.

they were to open fire to the law enforcement and create a big standoff situation. >> we appreciate you being with us again. there on the scene and watching all of this play out over a great deal of time. thank you so much for your insights and perspective from what happened there. we'll stay in touch with you stphrfplt thank you. >> we want to recap for our viewers, some 20 victims found inside a cafe killed. apparently the attackers used sharp weapons to do so. 13 other hostages were released in the stand justify that lasted 13 hours. started in the late evening and lasted well through the morning. officials say the military very heavily armed and stormed that cafe bringing the siege to an end. but, again, what we know, 20 people killed. 13 hostages released. six gunmen killed. two police officers killed,

losing their lives in this. this is cnn newsroom. we'll continue to follow this breaking news from bangladesh after the break.

5:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, this is "cnn newsroom," i'm george howell. we continue following the breaking news out of bangladesh. the bangladeshi army says 20 people were killed by attackers using sharp weapons. a hostage standoff dragged on for more than half a day. gunmen took over the artisan bakery on friday night. official say troops later counterattacked and rescued 13. they shot six gunmen to death, ending the siege. it is still unclear, though, whether one of the attackers was captured. the cafe is in dhaka's

diplomatic quarter. it's believed some of the hostages were foreigners. at the onset of the standoff, two police officers were killed in a gun battle with the attackers. 40 others were wounded. isis has claimed responsibility, though there is some uncertainty as to whether it could be a different group. following the situation in bangladesh, we're joined live from dell any. it's good to have -- from deli. it's good to have you with us. what are you hearing from officials now that we know 20 civilians were killed? >> reporter: that is really the headline, george. 20 civilians have died in this terrorist attack. all of them were foreigners, and according to the military, sharp weapons were used to kill some of those 20 civilians. when they were killed, we do not know. did it happen before the

security officers stormed into that restaurant, did it happen after, we do not know at the moment. for the longest time, there was a complete blackout really of information coming from that area, from the security officials, because of the sensitivity of the issue. since then, there's been military that's been holding press conferences, the prime minister, as well, and the prime minister of bangladesh saying that 13 hostages have been rescued. that includes one japanese national and two sri lankans. the japanese national is believed to have been with seven other businessmen at the restaurant. we do not know at the moment the fates of those other seven. we also know that six attackers have been killed. and there are some reports, as you mentioned, that one of the terrorists was attacked -- sorry, captured. if that is the case, that will

give some more light as to what exactly happened, what was behind it, and why. as we've been reporting, isis has claimed responsibility for the attack. there's a lot of security officials in the united states who have sort of questioned that. isis is not that prevalent in the south asia region. it's something that the government of bangladesh has long denied. what analysts have said is that al qaeda has a much larger presence in the subcontinent, but for the moment, we do not know for sure who is behind this attack. george? >> information has been slow to come. understanding what happened there. again, this took half a day. you know, some 13 hours. you mentioned that information, that media blackout, not uncommon when you deal with different tactical operations. obviously they want to make sure the people inside are not seeing

what's happening outside. that part understandable. i'd like to ask you, if indeed there is a person, one of the gunmen taken, you know, and now will be questioned, how important will that be for these investigators, first of all, to determine who's behind this? >> reporter: it's incredibly important because that's pretty much the only way at the moment to -- for authorities to figure out who's behind it. as i mentioned, isis has claimed responsibility. a lot of security officials in the united states have questioned that. security analysts have questioned that. and also the government has denied that isis is present in bangladesh. we know there's been a series of attacks against writers, bloggers, atheists, hindu priests, buddhist monks. for a lot of attacks, isis has claimed responsibility. and every time they've done that, the government of

bangladesh has always denied that isis is present, it's attributed attacks to home-grown militants. again, we do not know that one person or terrorist who's been captured, if somebody he has been captured. that will really shed a lot of light as to what exactly happened and who's behind this. george? >> you mentioned the attacks that happened to individuals who have been hacked to death in bangladesh. you and i have covered many of those gruesome stories. it's still unclear at this point for viewers as to whether any of those groups, which group might be behind this attack. cnn reporters and correspondents are, of course, gathering the facts. we'll bring them to you live. thank you very much for your hospitaling today. let's get context from our expert on security issues in bangladesh, sri lanka, and nepal.

thank you for being with us. first i'd like to talk about exactly how this attack ended. we know that two officers lost their lives doing their best to go in and deal with this. we're learning more details about the injured. the fatalities. 20 civilians killed. the simple fact that there were hostages that were freed, that is important. >> absolutely. i mean, as they say, there was a rapid security response by the bangladesh government which was necessary. and as events unfolded at the moment, as we understand, one person has been -- one attacker has been captured. we hope to receive vital information in terms of the methodology, origin, the reason for this attack and who was responsible for it. in terms of the security response by the bangladesh government, ipso facto after the event, i think they tried their best.

but the question here is, how could this happen in the first event. >> you and i talked about the fact that there have been other individual attacks on secular bloggers, people with different ideals and views of many islamist militant groups. can't draw any connections at this point to what happened in bangladesh over the night and into the morning. the simple nakfact that we know they used sharp weapons, terrorism has happened and continues to happen, does it put more pressure on the government to dig in and do more here? >> absolutely. in a sense, the pressure on the government has been mounting over the past two years. you know, there's been a rapid escalation of attacks and some very brutal attacks. bloggers and journalists who sought protection haven't been provided protection.

there's been very little investigation who've's been responsible for these attacks. indeed, no prosecutions or conviction so far. from that point of view, has the government's response to its terrorism, however home grown or what it may be, has it been tepid? certainly, certainly more could be done. certainly democracy could be protected more in bangladesh. >> in many cases, the criticisms have been that the government is almost saying two different things. in fact, that they will protect people when they're in their country, especially when it comes to the secular bloggers that i mentioned. at the same time, they pointed out the writers should write more responsibly. >> absolutely. so they are urging writers to exercise censorship and not freedom of expression. they're doing a line carefully between not offending the

radicalized end of the religious spectrum which is definitely, you know, for political reasons, the fact that they need the support of the growing community within bangladesh which perhaps is more lenient toward a more stringent form of islam. and this traces back to the tensions that exist between islam and secularism in bangladesh for years. and no political party has effectively addressed this. >> thank you very much for your insights. we'll stay in touch with you as we continue to learn more what happened there. let's talk more about what happened with senior south asia analyst for the nonprofit organization, the international crisis group, joining us live via skype from islamabad, pakistan. thank you for being with us. first of all, when you first heard about this, what were your

thought thoughts? >> it's again another attack against pluralism in bangladesh. and as previous have said, a dramatic escalation of attacks. a worrying trend. >> and at this point, it's unclear whether al qaeda in the indian subcontinent is behind it or whether isis who's claimed responsibility it the group to blame. the fact that there's competition in the region, how will investigators sort through that? >> whatever international network was potentially involved, i think equally important is examining the domestic actors who carried it out. there are various self-styled jihadist groups operating in bangladesh. one likely group has emerged in

recent years espousing al qaeda's ideology, linked to al qaeda in the subcontinent. responsible and has claimed the killings of publishers and is believed to have killed several foreigners, lgbt activists, and other symbols of pluralism its focus has been primarily on qatar. there are other places in the countryside, but this group has been focused on dhaka. and i think let's keep in mind that a hindu priest in a southwestern district was hacked to death yesterday, as well. this problem is large, it's growing, and targets are expanding. >> when you think about exactly how these commandos went in, we understand that dozens of them going in heavily armed, freeing 13 people, but we know 20 lost their lives. this particular operation, the simple fact that many of these groups go in to kill as many

people as possible, the simple fact that there were people free sudden important. >> it is important, but in general the way the government has tackled this problem has been heavy handed. the recently ostensible crackdown where more than 14,000 were arrested, there's very little information about who was picked up, civil society reporting police extortion and abuse while the political opposition was alleging that it was primarily targeting opposition activists. this problem is going to be dealt with through a law enforcement approach grounded in investigation and intelligence gathering, not s.w.a.t. teams. >> i want to ask the same question i asked earlier. when it comes to the bangladeshi government dealing with the

topic of terrorism, you can find a mixed response. almost a denial that it's actually happening there. we talked earlier about many of the individual targets, people targeted and hacked to death. now we're seeing this terrible attack carried out overnight and into the morning. will the bangladeshi government have to do more to address this issue? >> absolutely. signals to the public have been extremely mixed. it's accused the political opposition for the killings, saying this is another method for them to destabilize the country now that they've stopped the massive street agitation of a year ago. on the other hand, they've sent to bloggers don't offend religious sentiment. if you do, we can't be held responsible for the consequences. the government needs to be much clearer to the bangladeshi public about who they are going

to hold accountable for these attacks. >> thank you very much for your time. we'll stay in touch as we continue to follow the story. >> thank you. a man that one u.s. official calls enemy number one in a turbulent part of russia may have organized turkey's airport attacks. we'll have the latest in a live report ahead. what are you doing? getting faster. huh? detecting threats faster, responding faster, recovering faster. when your security's built in not just bolted on, and you protect the data and not just the perimeter, you get faster. wow, speed kills. systems open to all, but closed to intruders. trusted by 8 of 10 of the world's largest banks. i am a lot of things. i am his guardian. i am his voice.

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welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell. we continue following the breaking news out of bangladesh. 20 victims have been found inside a cafe there that was under siege for about 13 hours. the army says they were killed with sharp weapons and that all of them were foreigners. 13 other hostages were rescued. the standoff began when gunmen stormed the restaurant in dhaka's diplomatic quarter. heavily armed attackers also killed two police officers in a gun battle. commandos later raided the restaurant. that's how the siege ended. bangladeshi officials say six gunman were killed. isis is claiming responsibility, but u.s. officials say it sounds more likely to be an operation carried out by al qaeda. we're also following the terror attack in turkey. other news to update you on. a u.s. official says the man who orchestrated tuesday's attack at

the istanbul airport is a top isis soldier. the congressman says the organizer came from russia's north region. turkish news has identified two of three attackers. and officials believe they are from russia, uzbekistan, and kyrgyzstan. state media report authorities have detained two dozen people in connection with that investigation. cnn is following this with our team coverage. our senior international correspondent is live in istanbul with the latest. claire sebastian live in moscow this hour. nima, what more do we know about the suspect? >> reporter: we understand that he goes -- he holds a senior position in the war ministry. as you rightly said, he's very much feared in russia. he is a part of the uzbek regiment, one of the most active

of the isis regiment. we heard early on the belief that this was planned at the highest level inside isis and that his whereabouts are currently unknown, but he's moved back and forth in syria. he had a crucial role overseeing this commissioning, the plotting, and possibly the execution of this. for turkish authority, this just adds a new sense of urgency. and you were speaking about the continued arrests and number of those going up. they've known for a while that they've had a home-grown terror network that they've had to contend with in two attacks in recent months, that isis was believed to have carried out, carried out by turkish citizens. now with the reinforcement of the working assumption that isis itself incopyrigites syria, tha brings a new urge see it searches and interrogations. they need to know who else is in the country. who could possibly be making

their escape. they need to know to stop whatever else is in the work. >> nima live for us. thank you very much for your reporting. i'd like to go to russia with claire sebastian. what are we hearing from moscow, what reaction? >> reporter: so far the russian authorities have been distancing themselves from reports coming out of turkey that russian, at least one russian, was involved in the actual bombing, that he was one of the suicide bombers. as for the man that who that u.s. official believes to have orchestrated the attack, we're hearing from the interior ministry that he had georgian citizenship and left for syria in 2015. interestingly, the way this is starting to be reported in the russian media is that he had -- he had refugee status in austria. he's believed to have moved around europe. they're saying that any of these countries could have stopped this happening. we know russia has wanted this man for a long time for alleged

terrorist activities in its soil. he's believed to have started in the chechnyan wars in the late '90s. and from then, the russians have wanted him for various activities. so you know, his whereabouts are still unknown. the russian authorities have not commented on his possible involvement in the turkish airport bombing. very much they seem to be keeping an eye on the story. >> thank you. nima, one other question to you. given what we know about the suspect, given what we know about the attacks, what kind of security measures or precautions are being taken now? >> reporter: all right in the aftermath of the attacks, the turks came out strongly saying part of their concern is what could have been done differently. they believe what should have been done different she there should have been armed officers at the initial entry point to the airport compound. and istanbul already is a heavily secured airport.

we've been hearing from u.s. officials that this was a very good security setup. that they accept that given the threat to istanbul, the sequence of terror attacks that the country has been reeling from, that more should have been done. there will be counterterror officers at the initial search point coming into the airport compound. we've seen a heightened security presence on the streets of istanbul. the reality is that turkey has had to deal with this for a while. they know that they have been a target. and these are the questions that are being asked, knowing that, should it already have been at the highest possible alert. as this country still struggles to come to terms with what has been happening here for some months now, these are the questions that the turkish parliament and turkey's government will have to answer. >> clear to point out this is a time where we're seeing improved and thawed relations between

russia and turkey, given what happened in this terrible attack, we would expect that there would be more security sharing. >> absolutely. this comes in a week where we saw a dramatic turnaround in relations between russia and turkey, that letter from the prime minister on monday saying, expressing regret from the shooting down of a russian fighter jet in november. that, of course, led to a thaw in relations. russia saying it was ready to restart tourism, which was stopped during the last six to seven months. and they're even talking about restarting trade, president putin and mr. erdawan expected to meet before the g20 summit. cooperation seems to be stepping up between the countries after a period of very, very bad relations. >> claire sebastian live in moscow. also nima live from istanbul. we appreciate the reporting from both of you. thank you. as families of those who lost loved ones, as they

continue to mourn, we have the heartbreaking story of one of the youngest victims. a young palestinian girl who escaped with her life but lost a parent. >> reporter: 3-year-old rafif survived the horror of tuesday's attack. her mother did not. no one can explain to rafif what happened or where her mother is. 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 ham ed lost his wife, too. hamid is in the hospital in critical condition, and his 3-year-old on life support. the two palestinian families arrived from saudi arabia where they lived for a short holiday in istanbul. as they praebed to leave the airport -- prepared to leave the airport, the terrorists struck. rafif was in her mother's arms when she was shot dead, hit by shrapnel in her leg.

"they can't say they came to fight the military and oppressors. they walked amongst us. they could see children," he says. the family, like so many here, muslim. "people who claim to be muslims with no mercy. i will teach my daughter ton hate. to love everyone. i will give her the best life," he says. on thursday new, he returned to the airport to put his wife's coffin on the plane. he led an islamic prayer for the dead. he promised his daughter he would take her to the airport to see the family. instead they will mourn her. cnn, istanbul.

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welcome backtoour viewers here in the united states and around the world. this is "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell. we continue following the breaking news. this deadly hostage situation, the standoff that ended in bangladesh's capital. attackers killed 20 foreigners inside of a cafe in dhaka with what are being called sharp weapons. the military was able to free 13 of the hostages and shot six gunmen and killed them. the bangladeshi prime minister said one of the gunmen was captured.

on friday night when it started, the terrorists killed two police officers and wounded 40 other people. following the situation, we go to nima live in new delhi. thank you for being with us this day. what more do we know about the investigation and the victims in this case? >> reporter: as you said, george, we know that 20 people have died. all 20 are foreigners according to the military. they also said that sharp weapons were used according to the prime minister, some 30 people rescued. three were foreigners including one japanese national and two sri lankans. the japanese national is injured but not in critical condition. we believe according to officials in japan that he was

with seven other japanese colleagues at the restaurant. five males and two females. we don't know the fate of those other seven japanese nationals. of course, yesterday during that gunfight, two police officers, banglade bangladeshi police officers, were killed. and six terrorists have been killed. one of them has been captured. george? >> there is still feelings this might have been carried out by al qaeda. what more are you hearing about that? >> reporter: that's right. pretty soon after the siege began really or the hostage situation began, isis claimed responsibility through its media

affiliate there. and soon after, officials in the u.s. and many analysts there had questioned this because they said that isis is not really that involved in bangladesh or in the indian subcontinent, whereas al qaeda has much larger presence in bangladesh. of course, we don't know who's behind it for sure. given the fact that there is one terrorist who has been captured, perhaps we'll know more then. a lot of security analysts have been saying that al qaeda and isis have -- and of course there's a lot of other local militant groups, as well, in bangladesh. all of them have been trying to sort of claim responsibility for a number of these attacks against bloggers, atheists, writers, you know, people from the minority groups, hindu priests, buddhist monks. so there's a bit of a turf war

if you will. given that bangladesh has such a large muslim population, 150 million people live there. 90% are muslims. so you can understand why these terrorist groups or militant groups would want to try to attract publicity and attention in a country like bangladesh. >> and doing it in a method that we have seen before, using soft targets, an artisan cafe. an unlikely target. >> reporter: that's right. i mean, as we've been reporting for basically two years now, there's been many attacks against writers, bloggers, intellectuals, people from the minority groups. some 40 people, more than 40 have been killed. these have all been attacks against individuals. one or two people, what usually happens is one or two people would arrive in motorcycles, they would kill these individuals with machetes and

then run off. now isis has claimed responsibility for some attacks. but again, every time that happens, the bangladeshi government has said that isis is not present in bangladesh and has attributed these attacks to home-grown militants. as the prime minister said, this is unprecedented. there has never really been an attack like this in a cafe, an attack again so many people in the diplomatic area in dhaka where there are so many restaurants, cafes. an area where a lot of ex-pats would frequent. so this is incredibly rare. this is what has shocked a lot of bangladeshis today. george? >> sunima udas live from new delhi, thank you very much. we'll stay in touch. our international diplomatic editor, nic robertson is live

with us with more context. i'd like to start with the singular issue of terrorism, given that we've seen other targeted attacks on secular bloggers and such. the government has been criticized for not doing enough. even as sunima pointed out, denying in some cases that terrorism is a problem. this attack, it's unclear who's behind it. what do you make of it? >> well, what you've had in bangladesh over the past three years or so is a growing gap and a growing struggle, if you will, between secularists and islamists. and on the islamist side, you have both al qaeda and isis trying to sort of gain influence over some of the historic islamist groups that exist within bangladesh. we've seen them both claiming attacks recently. if you look at the way that they've claimed them, analyzed over the past few months, for example, where we've seen a particular uptick, isis is the organization that has claimed

the stabbing and machete attacks on a hindu doctor, on a university, a hindu professor, on a hindu businessman. they've been going after the minorities. they have a track record of going after foreigners. whereas al qaeda, their affiliate, al qaeda in the -- in bangladesh, they say they've been targeting the lgbt community, the bloggers there. what both sides, what both islamist sides believe they're doing is protecting muslim because they feel the government has been cracking down on the slammist groups of -- islamist groups of decades ago. may of this year and in 2013, leaders of this groups. and there's an upswell of the

belief that nay need to protect islam. and we're seeing those attacks. broadly speaking, isis have been attacking foreigners in brutal knife and machete attacks. and attacking bloggers blogging about lgbt issues, for example. al qaeda also released the statement saying that americans were trying to spread homosexuality within bangladesh. the track record here, both organizations using knives and machetes in attacks. isis, who claimed this in the past have tended to single out more foreigners than people with more secularist identity, lgbt. this includes 20 foreigners. we don't know the nationality of many of the others that were able to escape. the picture that emerges is

perhaps concurrent with what al qaeda claims, because it's targeted foreigners. it's far too soon to say. and with the pool of radical muslimists, al qaeda and isis are looking for dominance, not just there but globally. >> i want to push further on that. again, we talk about these two groups. we talk about india in the subcontinent and talk about isis. there are many subgroups. is it fair to say groups are competing with each other to carry out their mission? >> reporter: absolutely they are. if you look in the aftermath, with win two days of the attack at the islamabad airport, we had al qaeda in syria, saying that this was an unislamic attack because it killed muslims. what it was saying was isis has gone out here, whatever its

agenda, has gone out here and killed muslims. this is what al qaeda at its leadership, believes they can win support back to their side, back to al qaeda and away from isis, isis being too radical. if you go back a month or so, you have al qaeda on the indian subcontinent which has its roots and mouthpiece in the afghan/pakistan area. you have al qaeda on the indian subcontinent saying that an isis attack in pakistan on the bataclan was unislamic because it killed muslims. you have al qaeda trying to show that isis is not acting on the best interests of muslims, is unislamic, and therefore, al qaeda struggling against a

vision of isis leading the principal jihadist attacks, of isis trying to claim that saying we're the purist, isis is killing muslims. in this attack in bangladesh, it's significant that's foreigners here who make up most in the death toll that we've seen so far. we don't know their religion. >> we'll have to wait to determine who is behind the attack. certainly the person who was taken, the gunman taken and will be questioned by investigators will lend insight into that burning question. nic robertson live for us in london. thank you very much for the insight and always for the reporting. this is "cnn newsroom." ahead, one of the men in best position to be britain's prime minister is someone who insists he never wanted the job. there he is. we'll have the story next.

want to update you on the breaking news that we're following. the hostage-takers in bangladesh's capital who killed 20 foreigners inside of a cafe. the military says that sharp weapons were used to kill those victims. troops were able to free 13 of the hostages. they shot six gunmen to death to bring the siege to an end. it lasted more than half a day. the bangladeshye prime minister says one of the gunmen was captured. friday when it started, the terrorists killed two police officers and wounded 40 other people. that cafe is in dhaka's diplomatic square. one of the cafe's employees described how the standoff started. listen. >> translator: they were shooting in the air. they didn't shoot to hit anyone,

just to create fear. later the guests were lying on the ground, under chairs and tables. we escaped in whichever safe way we could. some went to the roof, others went to other safe spots. in the end, there were about 15. we continue to follow the brexit events in the united kingdom. anti-brexit demonstrators will be on the streets soon to voice disapproval of the uk leaving the eu. london was a stronghold in the failed remain campaign, as you'll remember. britain's finance minister warns that the economic fallout could be grim. one week after the stunning vote, george osborne says it's no longer realistic for the british government to balance its budget by 2020. earlier in the week he said spending cuts and tax increases were on the way. speaking on friday, he said the deficit remains a top concern.

>> when i became chancellor six years ago, one pound in every four we were spending was borrowed in this country. and as a government. and we have got that deficit now down to a forecast of less than 3% this year. and it's incredibly important we maintain fiscal credibility, that we are tough on the deficit while being realistic about achieving the surplus by the end of the decade. >> the referendum on britain's place in the eu has left a fractured country, and it's also left the fractured party. candidates are rushing to fill the vacancy left by david cameron. one day after boris johnson said he would not seek the prime minister job, justice secretary michael gove laid out his vision for leadership. we have that story. >> reporter: as political entrances go, this hasn't been a

smooth one. >> mr. gove, did you -- >> reporter: we didn't get an answer, but just 24 hours after abandoning his closest ally and friend, boris johnson, michael gove was not only a man with a plan -- >> we need to reboot our democracy. all i can pledge is that i will always be guided by principle. i will govern as captain of a team, and i will always, always put my country and our people above everything. >> reporter: his was a lengthy vision, 5,000 words long. bold promises from a man who has always been reluctant to take the job. >> i did not want it. indeed, i did almost everything i could not to be a candidate for the leadership of this party. >> reporter: after the political week that was, some may find it hard to believe his intention, trust his direction, and perhaps

even stand by him. >> tell white house you'll back -- >> what if you dump the country -- >> reporter: boris johnson could be among them. after all, he's felt the immediate impact of michael gove's ambition. >> this is politics in the raw. this is down to basic ambition of leading politicians wrestling for a job. and michael gove is now a man with blood on his hands politically. he desert ed david cameron and george osborne to fight the leave campaign. he's now deserted boris johnson, who was his chosen figurehead for the leave campaign. >> reporter: still, this political ruthlessness isn't put something off from supporting him. >> no one thought that they'd been bosom buddies for years. what we did have was a man with great talents and energy in boris johnson. what we were looking to do is anchor the team around that focus effectively. when support ee ebbed away desp

our effort, it became clear that michael should put himself forward. >> michael! >> reporter: for some, this is a trael of political treachery. for others, this is another fiery day in british politics. the necessary steps to being a prime minister. isa suarez, cnn, london. this is "cnn newsroom." ahead, breaking news coverage continues of the terror attack in bangladesh. you won't see these folks at the post office. they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. ...one of many pieces in my i havlife.hma... so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine.

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welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell. we continue following the breaking news. the hostage situation in bangladesh's capital, it has ended with 20 civilians and two officers dead there. the army says that all the hostages who died were foreigners, and that the attackers killed them with sharp weapons. the gunmen took over the bakery friday night. troops later counterattacked, rescuing 13 hostages and shooting six gunmen, killing them. the bangladeshi prime minister says one of the gunmen was captured and will be questioned by investigators. one japanese national and two sri lankans were also among the hostages rescued.

officials from both nations say isis has claimed responsibility for the attack. keep in mind, there is uncertainty, according to u.s. officials, as to whether in fact it might be a different group. for more on the situation, let's go live to cnn's sunima udas live in new delhi. in the last couple of hours, we've learned that 20 civilians were killed in the standoff along with two officers. what more have you learned, what are you hearing about what happened overnight and through the morning? >> reporter: that's really the latest, george. 20 civilians killed, all 20 were foreigners. we do not know the nationalities of the 20 civilians at the moment. we do not know why -- when they were killed. did it happen when the troops, when the bangladeshy troops stormed in, did it happen before that, did it happen after that. we do not know. as you mentioned, as the prime minister has said, one of the

terrorists has been captured. hopefully there will be more information coming in regarding all of those details. and of course, 13 hostages have been rescued, as well. three believed to be foreigners. one of them japanese. two of them sankance . he was with seven colleagues at the restaurant at the time. we do not know the fate of the other seven colleagues. that's really the latest. it's been difficult to get information. for the longest time, there was a complete blackout. we can understand why given the tense situation, given the 12-hour siege. now, the military has held a press conference, the prime minister of bangladesh, as well. that's all the information they have given us at the moment.

george? >> live for us from new delhi, thank you very much for your reporting. and recapping for our viewers around the world, the hostage situation, the standoff in bangladesh's capital that lasted some 123 hours, it has ended with 20 people, 20 civilians killed. two police officers killed, as well. 13 hostages released. we will, of course, continue to follow the story here live on cnn. thank you for being with us this hour for "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell at the cnn center in atlanta. "new day" is next for viewers in the u.s. for other viewers around the world, more of our special coverage of the bangladesh terror attack continues after a short break. stay with us. thanks for the ride around

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we heard three really loud gunshots. >> people were saying there was an attack on the restaurant. >> this neighborhood is one of the most if not the most secure neighborhood in dhaka. >> it's a very posh neighborhood. everyone is stunned that something like this could happen here. good morning, everyone. so grateful for your company as always. i'm christi paul. i'm victor blackwell. breaking news