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Hostage Siege in Dhaka is Over; ISIS Claims Responsibility for Dhaka Attack; Security Questions Raised for Bangladesh; Well-Known Terrorist from Russia Organized the Attacks on Istanbul's Airport. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 02, 2016 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:01:30] NATALAIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: We continue our ongoing breaking news at the siege in Bangladesh. I'm Natalie Allen live at CNN center in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world.

If you're just joining us, there has been somewhat of a remarkable ending to this very long ordeal. After more than 13 hours, the hostage siege in Dhaka is over and 14 hostages have been freed at the very end. The Bangladeshi army says troops shot and killed six gunmen.

Earlier, witnesses saw at least one person taken away by ambulance but we don't know who or how they were hurt. They were taken at the very end when commandos moved in.

The attackers initially stormed the popular cafe, Friday night at about 8:45 there in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. ISIS has said it's behind what happened, but U.S. officials believe it may have been al- Qaeda. We're waiting for the army there to brief us with more within the next half hour.

CNN's Andrew Stevens has some following developments from Hong Kong and hearing from other countries that have been helping give us information because, as we said this was diplomatic area. Andrew.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Things that pieces of the jigsaw are starting to fall into place, Nathalie, as to the hard facts about how many hostages exactly were there, how many gunmen were there. And on this stage, we still can't confirm hard number on that.

It has been reported pretty much through out the passed 14 hours aside that the number of gunman was between six and eight. Now, the Bangladeshi army has confirmed that six gunmen were killed when the Holey Artisan Bakery was stormed about 12 hours into the siege and they also a confirmed that some 14 hostages had been rescued, 14 of a possible 20 and that's the majority of the hostages.

We don't know the condition. We don't know if and how they were injured, any of the hostages. We can tell you that the Sri Lankan High Commission has been plating (ph) saying that two of their nationals were among the 14 freed and they are unharmed. That's according to an official from the Sri Lankan High Commission will actually meet the two hostages who had been freed.

We understand that there are Japanese nationals involved. Japanese Prime Minister says there is a high possibility that Japanese nationals are involved. But at this stage we don't know how many and whether there were anywhere among those who had actually been rescued by the army.

We -- it's interesting there is a doubt -- some doubt about who claims responsibility for this, whether this was in fact an ISIS attacked or whether it's an al-Qaeda attacked. But the fact here is the Bangladesh hasn't seen anything on this scale even before.

Six or eight gunmen, basically assaulting a restaurant taking hostages a siege situation. There have been terror attacks, frequent terror attacks in Bangladesh in the past two years or so or going back even longer, but they have been much more along the lines of attacks on individuals.

The individuals have been targeted from minority religions, from the gay community, secular bloggers, all have been are targeted and in many cases they were killed by being hacked to death in a single target if you like.

[02:05:03]But this was completely different, so the Bangladesh military were dealing and police were dealing to something completely different and to assault of that bakery and we're being told that up to 100 commandos were involved in that assault.

Around about 8:00 in the morning or so, so in broad daylight to assault that restaurant and to be able to retreat 14 hostages alive from, perhaps, 20 really does seem to be an extraordinary result given the fact that if this was ISIS there that their operation, their M.O. if you like is to take as many lives as they can and these are invariably suicide attacks, Nathalie.

ALLEN: Right. Look at the pictures inside this restaurant. There are stairs. I'm not sure how big it was. I know that it had a terrace outside, a grassy area. There's no telling what in the world was going on inside this restaurant. But, yes, a remarkable ending that people got out.

What about the early on. How that this first happen? When were these gunmen first spotted before they went into this restaurant? And tell us about what ensued then because they were two police officers killed then and a lot of people injured.

STEVENS: Yeah, that's right. What we know that the attack happened between 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Friday night in Gulshan which is very up market part of Dhaka. It is in the diplomatic culture. It is -- that the actual Holey Artisan Bakery is a bakery by day and then eatery night. It is very popular amongst both the expat community leading around that area and also to local Bangladesh, this particular young Bangladesh is up there to gravitate water. So it was a popular area. Sometime between 8:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., as I said between six and eight gunmen stormed into that restaurant shouting Allahu Akber, "God is great." And immediately sees the hostages inside.

Some of the staff members at the restaurant did managed to escape including one who was furnishing the details of how many diners there were in and out time and how many attackers he saw.

So, once the attackers were inside the police responded. There was a fire fight, during which two police were killed and reports of up to 40 other people injured.

There were also reports that the attackers were armed with assault weapons and grenades and perhaps other types of explosive devices. We don't know for sure, but it was a much more sophisticated attacked than we have seen in previous terror attacks in Bangladesh.

So they wait in there. They knew what they were doing. They repelled a police attempt to get in there early on in the siege place them (inaudible). The area was cordoned off and then the siege basically it was a stalemate fall.

For the next 12 hours or so, we understand that there were attempts made by the Bangladeshis to mediate and negotiate with the terrorists, but they didn't get very far at all.

And so if they even established contact, but we're led to believe there was no attempt by the gunmen to make any demands for anything. Basically, it appeared that they had got in there. They had no intention of coming out alive and that the hostages were in the very, very grim situation indeed.

So after 12 hours they made -- the police made the decision just early daylight to actually storm the building and as we know now, it was certainly relatively very, very successful in the 14 hostages survived with their lives.

ALLEN: And the video we've just been seeing of people in the streets and these armored vehicles moving in. This -- we just had started seeing this. Andrew, what about two or three hours ago because there have been a news blackout and it was very hard to get any information.

STEVENS: Yeah, that's right. Perhaps it was surprising in a life situation like that. You do not want your local television channels sort of beaming what -- exactly what the police are doing from the site because that could easily be watch by the people inside the building. So, yes there was a news blackout.

And we did see those pictures of what look like armored personnel carriers moving troops around and that's probably more to the point that they needed to establish a cordon around the area completely lock it down, rather than actually using that sort of heavy weaponry in response to any sort of storming of the building. And certainly, we're been speaking over the last few hours to the several witnesses who say they've heard gun shots repeatedly. They heard explosions, but they couldn't see it. They couldn't be post (ph) enough to see it, so they were getting their information they were hearing this sort of fire fights and they were getting information from the police who have been station around those streets who were getting the information from the front line if you will. So that's how they were getting that information.

[02:10:08] But certainly the explosions -- there were two explosions quite a long time after -- maybe 20 or 30 minutes after the initial firefight involving the troops storming the building and taking over basically engaging the gunmen.

There was a real peace -- there's a period of calm and then a couple of explosions and then that appears to be -- has been basically detonated explosions, detonated by the authorities as they swept the building clean, as they secure it and make sure there was no booby traps so there was no munitions which could have gone off.

So, basically securing the area and then soon after that, the Bangladesh army declared they all clear, that the operation had been complete.

ALLEN: All right, 14 hostages freed. Six terrorist killed and according to Prime Minister and an eye witness we talked with earlier, one terrorist was captured alive. So, that perhaps will bring them some information if that's true.

STEVENS: Just on that point, Natalie. I just think we do need to be careful about to this because we heard this from an eye witness who said that he had been told that they were five gunmen killed. He had been told by local police that five gunmen killed. One have been taken hostage and two were unaccounted for. But these numbers are seem tp be quite fluid at the moments.

So, whether or not they're actually has been one of the gunmen taken alive, that's still very much unclear at this stage.

ALLEN: All right. Andrew Stevens live in Hong Kong for us. Thanks again, Andrew.

We want talk again with Sajjan Gohel now. He's International Security Director for the Asia Pacific Foundation. He joins us live from Tokyo.

And Sajjan it is really remarkable that -- how this has ended. No one perhaps felt it was going to end like this with hostages being freed and gunmen being killed. Perhaps, one of them being captured, not confirmed.

But, what do you make of this that this is had somewhat of a positive ending after this being of course a terrible event for Bangladesh and an unprecedented event for this country.

SAJJAN GOHEL, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY DIRECTOR, ASIA PACIFIC FOUNDATION: Well, Nathalie, it is a positive to some extent the information that has come out. We need to await proper -- official confirmation from the authorities which I think will happen soon.

But -- and the other aspect is, of course, that most siege operations do end a very badly with high fatality numbers. We'll have to wait and see what the official figures are. But whichever way we look at this, this is still the biggest terrorism event that Bangladesh has experienced. Prior to this, it was mostly targeted assassinations by local groups. This one seemed to be more coordinated with multiple gunmen.

That is something now the Bangladeshi authorities are going to have to look at because even though the incident may not have results in high fatalities, it has set a precedent and one that maybe repeated in the future.

ALLEN: Absolutely, because it was pretty much understood that this was an event that was likely to happen. However, Bangladesh wouldn't quite connect with that, wouldn't agree that this was perhaps a threat for the country. Why is that?

GOHEL: There was a degree of denial by the Bangladeshi government that they had a terrorism problem. That's not unusual. There are other countries in Asia, in Africa, that try and down play the terrorist threat that they have because they somehow feels it hurts them economically, politically, socially.

In the case if Bangladesh itself, they don't just have a problem with groups that affiliated to ISIS but also to affiliations with al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinents. So you have a two track terrorist progress taking place inside the country, where they often compete with each others who can kill more.

Most of them had been targeted assassinations that I mentioned killing bloggerss, academics, members of the religious minority, community, police, people. But this time we've seen a much larger operation and it will be important to find out which actor was involved, whether it was affiliated to ISIS or affiliated to al-Qaeda.

ALLEN: Right. And an expert in law enforcement I talked about earlier said that the al-Qaeda, ISIS, you know, battle to be dominate in the Indian subcontinent that al-Qaeda was more like Myspace and ISIS is more like Facebook and as far as their power of these days and that al-Qaeda was under funded.

GOHEL: Well, suddenly al-Qaeda has lost ground to ISIS globally in terms of recruitment, appeal, propaganda, finances.

[02:15:02] But in South Asia, al-Qaeda is mounting the resurgence. They are trying to recapture the headline and the focus of recruits. And it's in Bangladesh, ultimately, where al-Qaeda Indian subcontinent and ISIS are effectively competing which each other for recruits, you know, in a doubted channel (ph) which is produced to by ISIS that they came out last year shortly after the Paris attacks.

There were several articles in that in which ISIS spoke about how they want to focus on Bangladesh, how they see it as a priority and that they will going to increase the tempo of operations and equally AQIS has come out with statements this year in which is talk about Bangladesh as well.

So, both groups compete in various different parts of the world, Egypt, Syria, and Bangladesh is exactly another example of that.

ALLEN: And al-Qaeda, more so, wants to target Westerners and ISIS for the most part doesn't care as much if Muslims get called up in a rampage such as this and would lose their lives. For example, most of the victims there at the airport in Istanbul were Muslims.

GOHEL: Very much so in the sense that ISIS are deliberately will killed Muslims. They don't have any problem in that and in fact, they really relished it. Al-Qaeda, by and large if Muslims die in one of their operations, it seen as collateral damage.

So, ISIS will focus on Muslims and Westerners. Al-Qaeda will focus predominantly on Westerners. But, these are hardened fast (ph) troops, often, there are many shades of gray between and especially when you're dealing with affiliated groups because it's not that ISIS or al-Qaeda operate directly inside Bangladesh, but who their affiliate.

ISIS are connected to the (inaudible) in Bangladesh group and you also have the Ansarullah Bangla team which is affiliated to al-Qaeda and both those groups carry out attacks on behalf of the outfits that they claim to represents.

ALLEN: And it is unfortunately a new day for the country of Bangladesh after a situation like this. Sajjan Gohel, thank you, again. Terrorism expert talking with us from Tokyo.

And we'll have more of our breaking news right after this. You're watching live coverage here at CNN.

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ALLEN: And welcome back. The Bangladeshi army says the siege at a cafe in Dhaka is over and that 14 hostages have been rescued.

Sri Lanka says two of its nationals were among those rescued.

Gunmen stormed a popular restaurant on Friday evening in the diplomatic quarter. The army says six gunmen were killed. The attackers held as many as 20 hostages and killed two police officers in a gun battle.

[02:20:02] ISIS claims responsibility for the attack, but U.S. official doubt that claimed thinking it sounds more like an al-Qaeda operation. We just don't know at this point. But it is over.

And with us now from London on Skype to discuss the bigger picture, what is this mean for Bangladesh is Meenakshi Ganguly? Thank you so much for joining us. She's the South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch. Thank you for joining us. And I want to you, Meenaskshi, this was a large operation. We don't know who was behind it. But prior to this in Bangladesh, we had just seen these sporadic attacks on individuals, non-Muslims who were speaking out against extremism. So, this is perhaps a game changer for this country.

MEENAKSHI GANGULY, SOUTH ASIA DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHT WATCH: Yes, indeed. You know, the thing is that for the last several years now of these attacks began and then they've gradually even scheming up.

So, you know, there were couple of gradual schemes last year then the frequency of these attacks have just been picking up. There have been -- it just yet did -- just a day ago in the mourning of the latest attacked there was a Hindu Temple that was attacked and a priest was -- had to be dead (ph).

So this has been just getting up. These groups have become more and more motivated into spheres (ph) and one of the problems really has been that that the government did not seem to take it seriously when these -- than these attack were being first started.

ALLEN: And they're absolutely gruesome hacking of people that are just speaking out and sharing their thoughts on freedom of speech and it is apparently just something that these extremists just can't take that people can say what they want.

What else do you think is behind with these attacks and is social media to play behind them?

GANGULY: Well, these attacks first started because, at least according to the state concept (ph) that were attributed to the attackers because they were close to any form of secular belief. That is how it first began. That they've noticed that all APS and parties of APS that's how it started.

Well, (inaudible) it's just right, you know, if it is religious minorities, it was gay right activists. It's just gone on and on. And one of the problems is that's the state, the Bangladesh government initially kept to recommending to people that they must exercise of self-censorship. They must exercise restraint so that people don't get upset about their religion or their religious beliefs. But the truth is that these groups were looking fairly to retention and now they've got it.

They started with the gay rights activists, then they case (ph) of police officer is right and now they retackles how this concerned in (inaudible) and if the intention was to draw, get attention to their hearts and beliefs, then now they've succeeded.

ALLEN: How much is Bangladesh, is the government there attuned to, you know, the bigger situation here that the crisis that their country faces, just like so many others and how much cooperation do they have with the west? How much do they need the west? How is Human Rights Watch working in that country if at all?

GANGULY: We were quite a vied in the country and yes, probably certainly needs assistance. Part of the problem has been that the Bangladesh government, the present government is -- was elected unopposed because their opposition were part of the election.

Since then, because of this complicated political standoff between the two main political parties, which is happened is that these attacks, too, were blamed on what the Prime Minister kept describing as terrorism by the opposition.

And in fact, like these -- said that no, there is jurisdiction between violence street protest which are also oppose of -- to the objective and this kind of attacks this government did not going to be consider this thing.

And therefore, and you know, they were -- the previous state will have, you know, these looks sort of exist, this is -- the al-Qaeda doesn't exist and ISIS doesn't. And it's possible that none of these groups exist.

I mean, you know, right now as we can see from around the world, these attacks are happening. People are claiming all kinds of affiliation. We do not know enough. But what we do know is that these are dangerous groups that these acts -- and their way of thinking has to be challenge, is it of just imagining that this is some sort of opposition deploy, which is the mistake of the Bangladesh government made.

ALLEN: And we know the government rounded up thousands of people that it felt might be a threat extremist. What are your thoughts on that action?

[02:25:04] GANGULY: You know the bloggers and the religious groups were being attacked. The religious minorities were being attacked earlier. And, you know, that there was, in fact, a list out which listed the number of -- member of writers and publishers who these groups having been thought were needed to be punish to their abuse.

The government initially as I said intended (ph) to react to be indulgent of these threats by saying that some of the views expressed by these writers could be considered unpleasant for a number of people of the Muslim faith and recommended that that goes to feed the writers hold back and exercise the state.

It is only after the al-Qaeda (ph) attacked to this, and that got brought a lot of international attention to this issue and then the fact that they've -- that the vital focus (ph) of a police officer was also skilled, that is only decided to take this more seriously and at that point the time is the time to identify the perpetrators to figure out who exactly is behind this.

The Bangladesh government grounded up, lately just grounded up to put out the street 15,000 people, which is no way to try and solve these cases. These cases need time. They need to be track and figured out who is behind it. (Inaudible) on the streets is not going to be the answer. This is just going to make people angrier and certainly it doesn't look really good from malicious human rights challenges.

ALLEN: Well, thank you so much for your thoughts, Meenakshi Ganguly, with the Human Rights Watch from London. Thank you.

And we'll have more breaking news coverage right after this, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: You're watching CNN live coverage. I'm Natalie Allen from Atlanta. And if you're just joining us, it has been a remarkable ending to a long, long siege there at the cafe in Dhaka in Bangladesh. It is now over after more than 14 hours.

Gunman, finally, in the light of day stormed the restaurant, a popular restaurant -- excuse me, the evening on Friday night in the diplomatic quarter. The attackers holding as many as 20 hostages and they killed two police officers in the earlier on in a gun battle before police finally raided the cafe a few hours ago to bring all of this to an end.

An army general says that hostages have been rescued and that six gunmen were killed. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but that is not been confirmed.

[02:30:04] U.S. officials are doubting that claim, so we really don't know who was behind this. All we do know is hostages walked out alive when the commandos moved in. That looks like new video that we're seeing there. I'm not sure what it is.

But let's go to CNN's Andrew Stevens. He's been bringing in these developments that have been coming in slowly, but we're finally getting them.

Hello to you, Andrew.

STEVENS: Yeah, we are finally getting them, Nathalie. That vision we're looking at may will have been from the first fight -- fire fight between the attackers and police just after they had stormed the restaurant last night, because there were something like 40 injuries and two police also lost their lives, the latest what was being reported. But, I wanted to bring you up to date on new information coming to us.

This is from the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who says that there were 13 hostages were rescued. We have been quoting the number 14. That is from the Bangladesh chief of the hour, a senior army spokesman for the military. But now the Prime Minister is saying 13 people have been "saved" and there have been -- there were six -- six of the gunmen were killed on the spot, but one was captured. So they do have one of the gunmen in custody at the moment.

The direct quote is from the Prime Minister is that, "We were able to save 13 people. We weren't able to save a few. A few are injured and they are in hospital and of these terrorists, often six died on the spot and one was captured."

So, she does say there has been fatalities amongst the hostages. They couldn't save everybody, but they have saved that she says 13 people. And that rescue mission, really, was the storming of the restaurant at about 12 hours after the gunman first entered the restaurant and that storming saw some intense gunfire for about 10 minutes what we're being told followed by silence.

We then started getting reports that hostages had been rescued. There were a couple of explosions following that, but they seem to be clearing out operations by the military, sweeping the area, securing the area. And now we're starting to get more information coming in. The Prime Minister saying that 13 hostages have been rescued, some sadly, were not. Six gunmen were dead and one has been captured. Natalie.

ALLAN: We should emphasize these numbers are fluid, as we hear one thing and then another, but have been fairly consistent since this ended. And I guess we can't say enough, Andrew, that during this long, long ordeal and it was quiet for so many hours no one knew what was going on inside that restaurant other than, perhaps, in the police who were monitoring it. But certainly, as this went on and on, no one perhaps, felt that people would be rescued alive from this restaurant. It's just not what usually happens in this type of things.

STEVENS: Well, ISIS claimed responsibility very early during the siege, in fact. ISIS claimed that it was responsible for this which did raise the eye browses of the security community, because that is not particularly their style to claim responsibility so quickly, particularly in an ongoing operation.

But, if indeed it was ISIS or ISIS sympathizes, that the M.O. the sort of the way it's done in these sorts of attacks is they are invariably suicide attacks and they invariably aimed at taking as much human life as possible.

So during that siege when there was very, very little negotiation going on, authorities would try to negotiate with the gunmen. The gunmen apparently not interested in talking to them. So it didn't seem that they had any demands and there was nothing that they were, that suggested they were taking the hostages in the hope of getting something in return.

It did seem to -- it did appear that it took the lives of those hostages was in very grave peril, indeed. And the authorities took that decision about 12 hours after the siege began to go in.

They went in force. 100 commandos we're told were in that operation to storm the Holey Artisan Restaurants. There was a period of intense gunfire, that's according to the head of the rapid response unit or the deputy head of the rapid response unit, which led that storming of the restaurant.

There was intense gunfire and thought (ph) it by period of calm and then we started getting these reports of some hostages being alive. So, yes, it is extraordinary if you think of just how bleak it looked just a few hours ago, Natalie.

ALLEN: Absolutely. Andrew Stevens for us there in Hong Kong and we thank you. [02:35:03] Let's get more now on the aftermath of this attack and the security questions it does raise for Bangladesh. Steve Moore is the CNN Law Enforcement Contributor. He's a retired from the FBI and he joins me now via Skype from Los Angeles.

Steve thanks again for joining us.

If, indeed, one gunman has been caught and is alive, how will that help in this investigation?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, that's a gold mine. I mean, they are going to exploit the information they get from this gunman in ways that -- I mean, it's just a fabulous find. And he will tell the Bangladeshis everything he knows about this, I can guarantee you that. And that is going to increase drastically the world's database on how Al-Qaeda or ISIS, if they did this operate.

ALLEN: And this -- the fact that there were people rescued and the fact that as far as we know, we have not heard any reports of all these commandos that went end getting injured that you said earlier just because 100 participated and it doesn't mean they all were in that restaurant. They were backing each other up if they needed more. But, it is truly a remarkable ending to something that normally you don't have a terrorist sitting and wait and the hostages alive.

MOORE: Right. And, again, this is something that I am really fascinated to find out. You know, on a standard S.W.A.T. operation, a complicated thing you might have 50 people involved and only eight will initially make the entry.

So they didn't have a huge number of people actually going in through the breaches. So I would really like to see how they did this. And I wonder if they used diversions, if they used some kind of decoy (ph) or if the -- if after 14 hours you had fatigue terrorists who may not have even thought that the initial part of this were going to take hostages.

I mean, if they're going in, they have to accept the fact that, like the killers in Istanbul, they might die within minutes. So they may not have been planning nor have contingency plans for taking hostages.

ALLAN: Right, because from the surveillance video there in the airport, it seems like the terrorist were frustrated at one point they couldn't find more people to kill. We thought at one running with his gun.

But is that -- as far as this restaurant though, it is fascinating because you didn't know they're going in, they don't know where the hostages are, presumably they've had it surrounded and had some surveillance ongoing.

But, where the hostages were? Where the terrorists were? Did the terrorist have suicide vest on? They really were going in there with not knowing what they were going to come out with.

MOORE: Right. And that is during those 14 hours, 13 or 14 hours that they were waiting. Obviously, they weren't waiting, just sitting. They were doing everything they could to get information on what was going on inside the location and there are various ways of doing that that I probably wouldn't like to broadcast everybody watching.

But there are ways to find out some rude of entering information. They had the cafe owner who I believe -- or a manager, something like that who actually got out. That person could give them the layout for the place and draw it for them.

They can actually practice if they had the resources on a make ship little floor plan. We use to do that a lot in -- with FBI S.W.A.T. So, they didn't go in totally blind. And you've comment for these teams to use a diversion going in.

I didn't hear any information on diversionary flash bangs, explosive devices, anything like that, like we heard the French use in Paris. So, again, I want to see how they did this and I want to see the type of terrorists they were up against.

ALLEN: Right, because the -- you're right. The witnesses that we've been talking with in the neighborhood there so they didn't hear anything like you describe. They only heard the gunfire. And then toward the very end, a couple of explosions, which we don't know what the genesis of that, was. But, they also waited until daylight. Is that working in their advantage or disadvantage?

MOORE: Well, generally, it gives the defenders, the terrorists inside an advantage of being able to see well. It maybe that for some tactical reason the RAB felt that it would be better to go in the daylight.

[02:40:05] One of the reasons might be that you had six terrorists who were now up, you know, you know that they didn't just set their alarm and go straight into the place. So, likely, they have been up 24 hours and waiting a longer period of time might have fatigue them, make them less alert.

The fact that their worked diversionary devices going off or -- and we're getting here doors being blown in, at least that I've heard so far might have been the type of attack where they were able to sneak in through some type of attic space, crawl space, something like this and catch them unaware.

ALLEN: Well, it's actually a fascinating story and then, yes. When we learn more about it, we'll have to talk with you again so you can analyze how they were able to do this because certainly, this world has not seen enough of endings like this with all these terror attacks.

MOORE: Yeah.

ALLEN: And it just continues to be so ...

MOORE: There's a good one.

ALLEN: Yeah. Yes, it certainly was. Steve Moore. Thanks again, Steve.

And we'll have more for you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: Welcome back. Again, our breaking news, the Bangladeshi army says a siege at a cafe in Dhaka is over and that 14 hostages has been rescued after 14 hours of being held. Sri Lanka says two of its nationals were among those rescued.

Gunman stormed at the popular restaurant on Friday evening. It's located in a diplomatic quarter. The attackers held as many as 20 hostages and killed two police officers in a gun battle in the early hours.

Police commandos later moved in to end the siege. The army says six gunmen were killed. ISIS claimed responsibility for this, but U.S. officials are doubting that claim, thinking it sounds more like an al- Qaeda operation.

Now for the latest on the terror attack in Turkey this week, a U.S. Congressman says, a well-known terrorist from Russia organized the attacks on Istanbul's airport. One of the 43 victims was the chief of pediatrics at a Tunisian Military Hospital and a professor of medicine.

For more on what we're learning about the attacks, here's Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIMA ELBAGIR, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The men who orchestrated this horror and unleashed it on Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Tuesday may now be known. Two of the suicide bombers who carried out the plot are being named by Turkey State News Agency.

I'd like to get 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 tells CNN, Akhmed Chatayev, an ISIS lieutenant from Chechnya is likely behind the plot.

MICHAEL MCCAUL, (R) TEXAS CONGRESSMAN: He traveled to Syria on many occasions and then became one of the top lieutenants to the minister of war for ISIS operations.

ELBAGIR: Chatayev is notorious with entire networks going by the nickname "Akhmed One-Arm."

JILL DOUGHERTY, KENNAN INSTITUTE ADVISORY BOARD: He was missing one arm use that, reportedly use that fact to argue when he went to Europe to get refugee status.

[02:45:03] He said, "I have been tortured by the Russians." The U.S. placed him on notorious list just last year, but he's been around for a long time. ELBAGIR: Investigators are digging in trying to find out more about the men seen running to the terminals brandishing weapons and detonating suicide bombs.

Turkey's President today condemning their actions and vowing to fight.

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translation): Terror and terrorists do not have religion, do not have nations, do not have a motherland. We are going to fight them with our soldiers, with our police and with our village guards.

ELBAGIR: 24 people including 15 foreigners have now been detained according to Turkish state media. Police are also asking local residence about the security image showing the three men believed to be suspects.

Turkish authorities told us they believed the three attackers hold up for a month in an apartment in the Turkish district in Istanbul. The three men, they say came directly from Raqqah, whether the investigation unfolds families are burying their loved ones.

Dr. Fathi Bayoudh knew ISIS all, too, well. His son had reportedly joined the group as a medic last year.

A family friend says Bayoudh had been in Istanbul, to help negotiate his son's rescues in a terror group, only to have extremely to take his life instead.

Nima Elbagir, CNN.

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ALLEN: Such losses for nothing. Well, these families mourned those lost to the attacks. Our Dumalag Carajay has the heart breaking story of one of the youngest victims of the airport bombing. A Palestinian girl who escaped with her life, she may not realize it but that her mother is gone.

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DUMALAG CARAJAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Three-year-old Rafif (ph) survived the horror Tuesday's attack. Her mother Nasreen (ph) did not.

No one can explain to Rafif what happened or where her mother is. Numbers of Turkey's Palestinian community are taking care of Rafif keeping her distracted and smiling.

Her father Marwan (ph) can barely speak, he lost his wife. His friend Hammed (ph) lost his wife too. Hammed still on 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 short holiday in Istanbul as they prepare to leave the airport the terrorist struck.

Rafif was in her mother's arms when the Nasreen was shot dead. Rafif was his by shrapnel in her leg.

They can't say they came to fight the military and the pressers they walked amongst us, they could see children Marwan says.

Rafif's family, like so many here are Muslims

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 who promised Nasreen to take her home to the Palestinian territories to celebrate the Muslim festival (inaudible) to their family, instead they will gather to mourn her.

Dumalag Carajay, CNN, Istanbul.

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ALLEN: Well, Israel says its aircraft had targeted Hamas sites in Gaza after a rocket fire from the Palestinian territory hit in Israeli City near its border.

We're seeing video of the rockets right now sighting government sources, the Jerusalem post before that a rocket hit and emptied pre- school. No physical injuries were reported, but the building sustained significant damage.

The rocket attacks followed Israel sealing off parts of the West Bank, the lock down was in response to a series of attacks on Israelis there including the stabbing death of a U.S. Israeli team in a settlement as she slept.

We'll have more on our breaking news coverage on the terror attack in Dhaka. How it began and how it ended more after this.

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[02:51:10] ALLEN: Recapping our top story this hour, Bangladeshi commandos have ended a hostage drama as they stormed the restaurant in Dhaka that had been targeted by attackers.

The Prime Minister says 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 had been holding as many as 20 people inside the Holey Artisan Bakery. A very popular bakery by day and a restaurant by night is in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter and upscale area of the city and it's believed some of the hostages were foreigners.

Local news outlets and witnesses reported they heard explosions. Those, may though, have been part of security cleanup efforts as officials cleared the building. The siege all started Friday night in mid -- Friday night there in Bangladesh and as the attackers lay siege to the cafe, two police officers were killed in a gun battle with police, 40 people were wounded. Isis is claiming responsibility, but a U.S. official has told CNN al-Qaeda is also a possible culprit.

Andrew Stevens has been following these developments for us from Hog Kong and joins me, again, live and certainly, there was loss of life in this ordeal, many people injured, but also somehow remarkably, people rescued. Andrew.

STEVENS: Yes, it does not seem to be extraordinarily if you think back just a few hours to when the siege was at its height that the authorities could not negotiate -- could not get right response.

We've been told from the attackers themselves and ISIS was claiming responsibility. It did look very, very grim, indeed. And to have, as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh says 13 hostages save is really is, as you say, quite remarkable.

Nathalie, we're just getting some more information on nationalities now. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and that's according to his spokesman with the Japanese government and she told him that there was one Japanese national among those 13 who had been rescued.

He is injured, but his injuries are not life threatening. That's what we're hearing, but he was rescued from the restaurant wearingly perhaps the man who was rescued was dining in the restaurant with seven other Japanese when the attackers broke in or came in with the guns and firing on Friday evening. So there are seven other Japanese who are still unaccounted for at the moment.

The other nationalities we are aware of are Sri Lankan -- two Sri Lankan nationals were also rescued by the authorities. They are safe and well. The Sri Lankan High Commission is tweeting that a senior official met with them and said they were both unhurt following their ordeal, which is also remarkable considering that the actual storming of that restaurant involve something like 100 commandos.

That's what we're being told and by the authorities, 100 commandos and going in following -- which followed -- was followed by a period of "intense gunfire." That is from the military, as well. A period, perhaps, 10 minutes of intense gunfire and from that we've still managed to see 13 hostages rescued from that situation, Natalie.

ALLEN: It will be fascinating once they released the details of this operation. Andrew Stevens for us, thank you, again, from Hong Kong.

Well, earlier my colleague Jonathan Mann spoke with Journalist Leone Lakhani. She has family in Dhaka and knows the bakery were the terror attack took place.

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LEONE LAKHANI, JOURNALIST: They're also concerned about what this could mean, what this could mean to their everyday lives.

[02:55:05] Will they be seeing more attacks like this? What will this mean for security? They've never had anything like this before. It's completely unprecedented.

And, you know, the government has been very adamant that they don't have any, you know, Al-Qaeda or ISIS or foreign extremist cells in the country. They've blamed previous attacks, targeted attacks in the past couple of years on local groups.

But, you know, 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.

They organized gun attack and that means that they have -- should 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.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: And the target was such an unlikely one they told the Artisan Bakery Cafe. Would anyone you know have ever felt threatened or endanger going to a place like that in Dhaka?

LAKHANI: 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 got a very European feel. It's got a garden, you know, coffee, espressos. It's a very -- it's very unusual for a Bangladesh, for Dhaka specifically. And it attracted a lot of people and there is in the area of quite an intimate area as they even 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 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. So we can understand why it could be a target, but until today, no one would have suspected anything like this there on the ground, Jonathan.

MANN: 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 in require now?

LAKHANI: You know, there was a security in the sense that, you know, 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 have seen in the past couple of years, especially since last September when we saw an attack on an Italian expert as well as the Japanese citizen later on in the year, as well.

So, the government has stepped up security in anyway because it's a diplomatic area with lots of embassies around. There is a little bit more security than usual, but in terms of, you know, 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 forwards.

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ALLEN: And our news will continue right after this.

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