Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Bangladesh Hostage Situation Resolved; Terror Attack Investigations Continue. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 02, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00] GEORGE HOWELL, "CNN NEWSROOM" ANCHOR: ... night, but the army says they killed six people there, six of them. They were able to free 13 people, again, killing six of the gunmen.

There are conflicting reports over whether police captured one of the attackers. At the beginning of the siege, the gunmen killed two police officers and wounded 40 other people. ISIS claims responsibility but U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinents may have been behind this attack.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh said Bangladesh must do what it can to root out terror. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEIKH HASINA, BANGLADESH PRIME MINISTER (through translation): We don't want these terrorist in Bangladesh. This type of situation is a first in Bangladesh. Until now, they were committing individual murders, but now suddenly they created this type of situation. What they did here was a very heinous act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: CNN's Andrew Stevens is following it all live in Hong Kong with us this hour.

Andrew, these are very grave details that we are learning. 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?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, a little more at this stage, George, but horrific scenes inside that restaurant as you can only image. When the place did storm the restaurant to round about 12 hours after siege began, there was a period of intense gunfire followed by silence. The next thing we heard there were explosions which are most likely connected to security forces clearing that area, securing the area.

But, they have made this horribly, grisly find of 20 of the hostages all dead, hacked to dead as you say. I'm just looking at the line here, "They're all killed due to sharp weapons," that is the -- coming from the military that has just finished a press conference now.

And 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 had been working on the assumption on reports that they were only about 20 hostages actually in that restaurant when the gunmen attacked.

But now, obviously, let's close it to 33, so, 13 alive, 20 dead. As far as nationality is concerned, we know for sure that there was a Japanese man who was amongst these 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 Lankan nationals as well who were rescued unharmed. But, they were part of the 13.

We don't know the breakdown, how many foreign nationals were there -- were at the restaurant, how many were Bangladeshis. But this was in a restaurant which is in a very popular part, in a very up-market part of Dhaka. It's in a diplomatic area, and it was European restaurant. It was a bakery by day and a restaurant by night. And it was frequented by both the expat community and young Bangladeshis. This was a Friday night during Ramadan, the last Friday night of Ramadan, it was breakfast time, there would have been more than usual -- more than the usual number of people there when this attack took place, George.

I can also tell you that the military are being -- talking about the sort of weapons that the attackers used. And perhaps, surprisingly, they're talking about an AK-22, this is a .22 caliber semi-automatic weapon which is a small caliber, a weapon that not a full sort of assault rifle. But again, many of the reports had been saying the gunmen had, but the military is now saying they were smaller caliber of rifles.

And 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 has come 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 have been limited to attacks on individuals, this was an attack 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 breakfast on a Friday night are now dead.

HOWELL: You talked about those targeted attacks, Andrew, like the attack on Avijit Roy, you know, secular bloggers, religious bloggers, people who say things that seem contrary to, you know, what many of these Islamists believe find themselves targets. So, again, as you point out, this attack happening on a much larger scale.

[04:05:07] But I'd like to ask you, when it comes to determining exactly who is behind this particular attack, whether it is ISIS or in fact, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. There is still a great deal of uncertainly among investigators in the aftermath. STEVENS: Absolutely, George. And if indeed there has been one of the gunmen taken alive, obviously, there will be a potential fountain of information as to who is behind it, what sort of planning was involved, and perhaps as far, sort of the networks involved.

One of our guest earlier, a former FBI counterterrorism specialist, we're saying that today we'll get a lot of information from that person.

As far as who it is, ISIS has claimed responsibility, and very quickly claims responsibility. And in some courses of the security community claimed responsibility a little bit too quickly. They say that ISIS in Bangladeshis is much less established than al-Qaeda, that the al- Qaeda group is known as al-Qaeda in India in the Subcontinent. It has been operating in Bangladesh for longer. It has a bigger network. It is better organized. But there has been, for one of a better description, almost a turf war between these two extremists Islamic groups to establish control.

So, with either side committing these hideous crimes that the way they are killing there victims, at this stage, we cannot say for sure which one is which. It is, obviously, and now, an absolutely huge problem for the government to deal with this. We had 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 is going to take a lot of efforts.

And they've already rounded up 14,000 people through -- this happens, so it gives you an idea of the scale of the problems that now face the government. And also, the general security situation in Bangladesh itself, George.

HOWELL: 20 civilians killed in Dhaka and this hostage standoff.

Andrew Stevens, following details for us live in Hong Kong. Andrew, thank you for your reporting and we'll stay in touch with you as we learn more developments throughout the day.

Earlier, we spoke with Steve Moore. He is a CNN law enforcement contributor and a retired FBI special agent. Get his take on what happened. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: When you hear that 100 of the RAB guys went in against six terrorists, don't think that it was 100 guns against six because you have to go through -- in through three or four entrances at the most, maybe, you might get 12 guns on the hostages or on the hostage takers at one time. You are not -- it's not going to be 100 against six because you're stuck way back. The guys from 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.

NATALIE ALLEN, "CNN NEWSROOM" ANCHOR: Absolutely, and you had said that this RAB had been trained, in part, by U.S. officials who assisted them and they had a good reputation as far as being able to perform their job. I want to ask you, the fact that they waited to till daylight hours and sat through the darkness, did that have any significance from the timing to you?

MOORE: It's interesting to me. I would -- I, again, my curiosity is piqued on this. FBI hostage teams and most FBI SWAT teams are hostage, rescue-oriented.

We like to operate at night. We like to operate with -- under cover of darkness when that was in our favor. It is possible that the Bangladeshi RAB operates much more effectively in daylight.

I do believe daylight operations gives some of the advantage back to the hostage takers, but I can't sit here and argue with what they did. I'm just, you know, I'm going with the numbers and it appears to me that whatever choice they made was appropriate based on what I'm hearing.

ALLEN: And as you talk, we're looking at this, you know, heavy weaponry they brought in there, fortified vehicles and such that they weren't messing around when they decided to move in. And 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 at these hours, perhaps, they're alive and there are hostages that are alive?

[04:10:03] MOORE: I don't know. Seriously, this calls into question, at least, in 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, inexperienced suicidal terrorists would have turned his guns not towards the RAB but would have turned his guns towards the hostages as horrible as that sounds. It appears that they got into a 15-minute gun battle with the RAB, which is not how ISIS usually acts, which is not how al-Qaeda usually acts. They are in it for the body count.

And so, yes, I'm -- I 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.

ALLEN: Right. They didn't know when they were going in. Did they have bombs? Did they have suicide vest? Apparently, not. They did lob some grenades at the beginning and that many people got injured, but the fact that they didn't have suicide vest says something.

MOORE: That's interesting to me, that, you know, everybody's going back and forth, the al-Qaeda versus ISIS. The fact that they used off-the-shelf explosives rather than ISIS who usually creates their own, their TAPP, they make it like apparently they did in Istanbul last week. They make it themselves and then they -- it's a blitz attack and they kill and kill and they tend not to get into hostage situations. This could be a sign of -- that it was al-Qaeda. The thing about al- Qaeda though is they don't -- they frown on killing innocent Islam adherence. So, it could be that part of the reason that a lot of hostages weren't killed is that it could be al-Qaeda and they refrain from killing Muslims. I don't know, but this, again, a lot of people are going to be spending a lot of years trying to figure out what's going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And keeping in mind that that was taken from earlier, my colleague Natalie Allen speaking with that CNN analyst. But again, what we know at this point, 20 civilians killed, hacked to death by these attackers using sharp weapons and 13 people, 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 journalist Leone Lakhani and she gives us this context.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEONE LAKHANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're also concerned about what this could mean, what this could mean to their everyday lives. Will they be seeing more attacks like these? What will this mean for security? They've never had anything like this before. It's completely unprecedented.

And you know, the government been very adamant that they don't have any, you know, 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.

But, you know, as we were hearing from your security expert, it doesn't matter whether they were local groups or foreign groups or groups inspired by foreign groups. At the end of the day, this attack was organized, it was organized gun attack and it means that they have to, the government had 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 CORRESPONDENT: And the target was such an unlikely one, the Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe. Would anyone you know have ever felt threatened or endangered going to a place like that into our country?

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's 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 attack, specifically. And it attracted a lot of people in the area, of quite of an aftermath area as you've been saying, a lots of expats, lots of diplomats in the area.

So, no, it wasn't very popular area but we can see it would be a target because it was quite high profile. You had high profile people who went there. It was a high profile neighborhood. And as we've been saying, it's a very densely population 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 been 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.

[04:15:12] 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 going to require now?

LAKHANI: You know, there wasn't security in the sense that, you know, you have roadblocks or anything like that in front of cafes and restaurants till now. The security had been stepped up recently because of the attacks you've seen in the past couple of years, especially since last September when we saw an attack on a -- on an Italian expat as well as a Japanese citizen later on in the year as well.

So, the government has stepped up security in any way because it's a diplomatic area with lots of embassies around. There is a little bit more security than usual. But, in terms of, 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 forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: We are also following the attacks in Turkey. People there, mourning the dead from Tuesday's airport attacks. And we have new information on who authorities think orchestrated that. The story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:20:22] HOWELL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom". Covering the breaking news, we now know 20 civilians were killed in a siege in Bangladesh, a siege that lasted for 13 hours, at least 13 hours.

They were killed with sharp weapons. Officials there say 13 hostages were rescued. The standoff began when gunmen stormed a popular restaurant on Friday evening in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. The attackers also killed two police officers during a gun battle.

There are conflicting reports as to whether one gunman was captured. But 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 also on the terror attack in Turkey. A U.S. official says the man who orchestrated Tuesday's Istanbul airport attack was a top ISIS soldier. The Congressman says the organizer came from Russia's North Caucasus region. Turkish news has identified two other attackers. And officials believe they are from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

State media reports authorities have detained two people, two dozen people, rather, in connection with this investigation. Following this story, Clare Sebastian now joins us live from Moscow.

Clare, good to have you this hour with us. So, what more do we know at this point about those suspects?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, we're not getting much from the Russian authorities on whether or not the bombers themselves came from Russia. We're also not getting that much information on the man who U.S. officials say organized this attack. But we can tell you a little bit more about him.

This man's name was Akhmed Chatayev. He was a Chechen national from the Russian region of Chechnya. He's believed to have cut his teeth as a fighter. Is in fact an extremist in the Second Chechen War in the late '90s and 2000s. We know also he was placed on sanctions list last year by, not only the U.S. Treasury, but also the United Nation Security Council.

More information emerging from those announcements, they say he was born in 1980s. So not only a fairly young man, they say he was a top leader in ISIS that he commanded, at the time being placed on the sanctions list in October last year, that he commanded directly 130 militants.

Also some more details about the man himself. Not only did he have just one arm, he also had just one leg. So, that, you know, we've been hearing the nickname Akhmed one-armed in Turkish media. He, as I said, he started off in the Chechen wars in the 1990s.

He then is said, that according to Russian media, to have gained refugee status in Austria and is believed to have moved around a far bit the Russian Interior Minister -- Ministry. Today, quoted in Russian state media are saying he actually had Georgian citizenship but left to go to Syria in 2015. So that's where we last hear of him and then, you know, his alleged involvement in the Istanbul attack, George.

HOWELL: And authorities, of course, continuing to learn more about people involved in this.

Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for your reporting. We'll stay in touch with you.

Now, as the families of those who lost loved ones in this Istanbul attack, as they continue to mourn, our Jomana Karadsheh has the heart- breaking story of the youngest victims, a young Palestinian girl who escaped with her life but lost a parent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Three-year-old Rafeef survived the horror of Tuesday's attack. Her mother Nisreen did not. No one can explain to Rafeef what happened or where her mother is. Members of Turkey's Palestinian community are taking care of Rafeef, keeping her distracted and smiling.

Her father Marwan can barely speak. He lost his wife. His friend Hammad (ph) lost his wife too. Hammad still in hospital in critical condition. His three-year-old son, Rayan, is on life support.

The two Palestinian families arrived from Saudi Arabia where they lived for a short holiday in Istanbul. As they prepare to leave the airport, the terrorists struck. Rafeef was in her mother's arms when Nisreen was shot dead. Rafeef was hit by shrapnel in her leg.

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

"The family, like so many here, are Muslim. People who claim to be Muslims with no mercy, I will teach my daughter not to hate, to love everyone. I will give her the best life," he says.

[04:25:16] 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 has promised Nisreen he would take her home to the Palestinian territory to celebrate the Muslim festival of the Eid (ph) to wait for their family. Instead, they will gather to mourn her.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN Istanbul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Coming up, more of our breaking news coverage of the terror attacks in Bangladesh. The latest, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. This is "CNN Newsroom," I'm George Howell. And we continue to follow the breaking news out of Bangladesh.

The army there says 20 people were killed by attackers who used sharp weapons in a hostage standoff in Dhaka. The gunman took over an artisan bakery on Friday night. Officials say troops later rescued 13 hostages then they shot six gunmen to end that siege.

It is unclear whether one of the attackers was captured. The cafe is in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter.

It's believed that some of the hostages were foreigners. At the onset of this standoff, police, two police officers, they were killed in a gun battle with those attackers and 40 people were wounded.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, though there are questions as to whether ISIS is truly behind it.

Let's get more now from CNN's Andrew Stevens following these developments live in Hong Kong this hour. [04:30:05] Andrew, these are very grim new details that we're learning here within the last hour, 20 civilians killed, hacked to death. What more have you learned there?

STEVENS: Well, this method of execution is in light, George, is something we have seen before in Bangladesh, but just not in anything like the scale we have just witnessed.

There have been attacks, 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 that the attackers got into the restaurant about 9:00 on 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. And then the police went in, in force, something like 100 commandos. They were, as we know now, being able to rescue some 13 hostages.

And the information we were getting at the time suggested there were only about 20 hostages all together inside the Holey Artisan Bakery. It turns out that there were many, many more. And we now know that when police did clear the area and they secured that restaurant, another 20 people lay dead, basically hacked to death.

And the cache weapons that were found were small caliber semi- automatic weapons, AK-22s, A-22, which is a .22 caliber which is quite a small, sort of sized, gun. These guns are used mainly for sort of hunting birds and snakes, or hunting squirrels. So, these are not full assault rifles by any means at all.

They also found a cache of sharpened domestic weapons. That's how they describe it. So, a bloody and hideous scene met the police as they began to clean out that restaurant of these people who have 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. He was injured, but not severely, and there were two Sri Lankans who were also rescued. They were unharmed. And we get that information from the Sri Lankan High Commission. But the U.S. Embassy has said that none of its staff were at the restaurant at the time of the attack.

So, that's really where we are at the moment. As I've said, this -- the method of the execution is something we've 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've said, it doesn't sound like, in negotiation, there were much negotiations, but we're still waiting for further details on this. There have been press conferences, but we're still waiting for a lot more details.

We do think, and this is according to the Prime Minister herself, that there is one captive who was one of the gunmen, that six were killed in the storming of the restaurant and one was captured. That news coming from the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to her counterpart in Japan when she rang him up to tell him about the Japanese citizen who had been rescued, George.

So, there is, at least, one of the gunmen in captive, who, no doubt, security forces are hoping will provide significant information as to who exactly was behind this, how it was planned and just perhaps how deeply entrenched that the network of these particular terrorists are in Bangladesh.

HOWELL: 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.

Let me get some context now on the story from Charu Lata Hogg, an expert on security issues in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the poll working with Chatham House at London. It's good to have you with us this hour. Thank you for your time.

First, I'd like to talk about how this attack ended. Two officers lost their lives. We're still learning details about those injured and the people killed, hacked to death. Given that we know that that is how they were killed, what do you make of this?

CHARU LATA HOGG, ASIA PROGRAMME, CHATHAM HOUSE ASSOCIATE FELLOW: Well, essentially, you know, as you your correspondent just pointed out, the hacking to death the manner this was carried out is not new to Bangladesh. Over the last two years, more than two years, we've seen numerous incidents against individuals where this has happened.

However, I think what is quite different about this particular attack is that the target's where definitely the western community. It was a very exclusive area within Dhaka, which was targeted.

And secondly, it was the skill of it. The hostage taking is something which is quite unprecedented in Bangladesh.

[04:35:02] So, in a sense, it is emblematic of the attacks by the so- called Islamic State and also takes it out of the domestic home-grown, the manner in which home-grown militancy has thus far evolved in Bangladesh. So this is definitely an escalation.

HOWELL: It's still unclear again who is -- who's behind this attack, exactly. But you do bring up these individual, these targeted attacks that have happened to secular bloggers like Avijit Roy, who actually 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 and, in fact, at times having mixed messages in taking care of the problem there.

HOGG: Absolutely. I think what we've seen that it's the whole issue of insurgency, militancy, the rise of radicalized Islam, whatever name you give it, it hasn't been addressed as a proper law and order issue.

There's widespread impunity for these individual attacks that have happened so far. Only in one case, has the person who is attacked, that the people charged have been -- had that the case has reached prosecution. And no other case has been in any proper investigation, prosecutions, convictions.

What -- the thing here of the government is really in politicizing the issue and feeding the blame on the opposition party for any such problem.

As we know, in this particular case, the government has certain -- had intelligence about a certain plots by international, domestic terrorist groups, but not enough was done from the security perspective to address it. So, certainly, there's that real assault in democracy and a failure of the state to respond effectively.

HOWELL: And I do want to make sure that we -- we're very clear with viewers. It's still unclear who carried out these attacks this day in Bangladesh. And no connection at this point to those targeted attacks that we have seen here over the last year or so. But, certainly the fact that these victims were hacked to death, it is something that draws comparison.

Charu Lata Hogg, thank you so much for your time and we'll stay in touch with you.

HOGG: Thank you.

HOWELL: Coming up, a major election is under way in Australia. And this one, it's one to watch. Voters could end up with their sixth prime minister in six years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:40:07] HOWELL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm George Howell. And we continue following the breaking news from Dhaka, Bangladesh, that's where attackers have killed 20 civilians, all foreigners, during the hostage standoff there.

It lasted around 13 hours inside a popular cafe in that city's diplomatic quarter. The army was able to free more than a dozen of those hostages though. Officials say that terrorists had improvised explosive devices and sharp domestic weapons that they used. They also had AK-22 rifles.

ISIS has claimed responsibility, but U.S. officials say that al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent seems to be more likely behind this attack. We continue to follow the story, of course.

Australia's foreign ministers condemning that terror attack in Bangladesh and says that she's been getting updates on a situation from officials in Bangladesh. Right now, Australians are voting in their first national election since 2013 with all seats up for grabs in parliament. The Prime Minister is hoping to remain in his job, but a close vote could mean that he won't get the outright majority that he needs to make economic reforms there.

Following this -- the situation and joining us live via Skype from Sydney, Piers Akerman, a nationalist columnist with "The Daily Telegraph." Good to have you with us, Piers. So, you're on the air with us now here on CNN. Thank you for your time.

I wanted to ask you first of all, voters, they 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?

PIERS AKERMAN, "DAILY TELEGRAPH" NATIONAL COLUMNIST: Well, there's a lot at stake, yes, George, here. That is correct. Neither of the current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull or the current opposition leader, Bill Shorten, have actually led their parties into elections before.

So, this -- they're both novices at this game. The campaign has been historically long. Malcolm Turnbull asked for a double dissolution. That is, he asked for both the House and the Senate seats to be vacated two months ago now.

So, we've had this in what seems to be an interminable campaign. And the voting stopped just 40 minutes ago, and the poll is closed. The results are coming in. Of course, it's far too early to tell what the trend will be.

The last poll showed that the government had a really slender majority of 50.5 percent as opposed to the opposition labor with 49.5. Malcolm Turnbull, the Primer Minister, needs a stronger victory than that to assert his authority over the party.

And, of course, Bill Shorten, the opposition leader will be hoping for any sort of victory, because there are already rumblings about his leadership, should he fail in this task.

HOWELL: Piers, so when you talk to -- when you hear from voters about this election, high stakes, what is the sense among people?

AKERMAN: The sense here is uncertainty about economic conditions. And I think that this is, you know, a global phenomenon in western nations at the moment. There's been so much change in 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 U.K.

The -- it's very interesting here, 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 pointed out on numerous occasions, the total therapy, in as much as national health as you and your viewers would realize, is not a profit making exercise, it's the laws making thing. And quite frankly, to privatize something, you need somebody who can see a profit in it.

[04:45:06] HOWELL: Indeed. And, you know, when we talk about just, you know, the sense of this particular election, it does look tight. But are we getting any indications as to who might have a slight advantage, who will lead at this point?

AKERMAN: Well, people always say that the incumbent government, they should enjoy a lead, but in as much as both political party leaders were responsible for politically assassinating their predecessors, Malcolm Turnbull ousted the sitting Prime Minister, Tony Abbott last September and Bill Shorten had a hand in deposing both of the two former Labor Prime Ministers, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

Neither of them come to this party with clean hands. Both of them were looking for a significant victory so that they can claim a mandate to govern in their own right and to boost their own popularity.

HOWELL: Piers Akerman, thank you so much for your insight. And we'll continue to follow the election results there. 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.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PATRICK SNELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND SPORT ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Patrick Snell with your CNN World Sport headlines.

Starting off with the very latest from this year's European Football Championships in France on Friday, it's certain that the number two rank team in the world, Belgium, looking to and the hopes and dreams of Gareth Bale with Wales that it all started so miserably for the Wales as the Belgians take the lead through Radja Nainggolan, that Chris Coleman's man once again showing terrific resilience.

They dig deep from their influential skipper, Ashley Williams, gets them back in it with a powerful header from a corner. And then how Robinson Cano putting them ahead before some folks, with the icing on the cake, 3-1 Wales. They will next face Portugal for a place in the final.

To Wimbledon, where the rain kept falling late Friday afternoon, forcing play to be suspended until Saturday. Now, it did much of Stan Wawrinka suffered a shock second-round exit at the hands of Former U.S. Open Champ Juan Martin del Potro. The -- and on time, he's back from injury playing in his first slam since 2014 losing the first set before winning the next three in the match.

And Golf's former world number one, Tiger Woods, pulling out of this month's British Open at Royal Troon in Scotland. The 40-year-old American, right hand, that hasn't competed in the best part of the year now following back surgery last September. The three-time U.S. Open Champion will be replaced in the field by the Australian Marcus Fraser.

That's a look at your CNN World Sport headlines. Thanks for joining us. I'm Patrick Snell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:50:12] HOWELL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." We continue following the breaking news out of Bangladesh. 20 victims found inside of a cafe in Dhaka that was under siege for around 13 hours. The army says that they were killed with sharp weapons that they were all -- many of them were foreigners.

Thirteen other hostages were rescued. The standoff began when gunmen stormed a popular restaurant on Friday evening in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter. The heavily armed attackers also killed two police officers in a gun battle.

Commandos later raided that restaurant and that ended the standoff. Bangladeshi officials say six gunmen were killed, ISIS has been responsibility but U.S. officials say that it sounds more likely to be an al-Qaeda operation.

To talk more about this attack, we bring in Saad Hammadi. He joins us now via Skype. He is an investigative journalist and the Bangladesh correspondent for "The Guardian." Also was at the scene of that standoff in Dhaka for a great part of the night. It's good to have you with us, Hassan.

So, first of all, I want to ask you, you know, you were there 13 hours, the standoff that went through the night and well into the morning. What all did you see?

SAAD HAMMADI, "THE GUARDIAN" BANGLADESH CORRESPONDENT: We'll see that the area has been cordoned off for a long day and police have been trying to negotiate with the gunmen inside, talk about -- they'll have to bail them and they went with defensive. Defensive has been planned since night and they warned the media to kind of stay off of the limits of the areas so that they can launch a full-sighted operation which they did eventually in the morning.

It's a good thing that they have been able to rescue 13 persons from there. Because at one point a lot of the people waiting outside who have their relatives inside and were worried, had lost hopes that they'll actually find their dear ones alive because there was no sort of communication from inside for many of the people.

HOWELL: It is important to point out though, the simple fact that 13 people, 13 of these hostages, were freed. Pretty remarkable when you consider that many of these Islamist groups, they go in to kill as many people as possible.

HAMMADI: Well, they were freed but if you have noticed that they were also freed on conditions that they have been able to say verses from the Quran and those were conditions that these terrorist groups were putting up to the people who eventually came alive. But that's just an information we've got very recently. What's important is that, this offensive that the forces eventually launched was also to be appreciated for the fact that they have been able to rescue all these 13 persons alive.

HOWELL: And that is remarkable, that they were able to be rescued alive. At the same time though, you say that they had somewhat of a test to be able to be released.

HAMMADI: But there are also conflicting statements about, if you've noticed, it's not just ISIS, it's -- the al-Qaeda will also claim responsibility as we come across some statements published in "Reuters" and other news agencies as well.

So it's -- at this time claims by the international outfits are really not as significant because it's nonetheless a terrorist attack which have been carried out and that needs to be addressed with proper investigation ...

HOWELL: Indeed.

HAMMADI: ... which is the most important.

HOWELL: Indeed. And when you bring up the difference between al- Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and ISIS, these two groups, really, in competition with each other to maintain viability. I want to ask you from what -- please go right ahead.

HAMMADI: Right. They were saying last evening doing another interview, that the existence of al-Qaeda in I.S. in Bangladesh is still not as clear. But even if it is remotely, they're able to create a fear and draw the publicity or attention of the people that they have been seeking. That's what they're being successful at doing. That's what's making people more scared and fragile to all these attacks.

HOWELL: Yeah, and 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, the dozens of people who went in armed. What was that like? How did they carry this out?

HAMMADI: Well, my interview with the policemen on duty there was pretty lobbing. I was pretty surprising and shocked by the valiant efforts that they have made through despite not knowing the kind of possession of weapons that these gunmen had with them, which only unfolded very early in the morning that they had in their possessions IEDs explosives and AK-22 assault rifles with them.

And that's quite remarkable possess of automatic weapons. And these policemen were initially charged. They had literally no idea about what they were going forward, what they were facing.

And eventually, a lot of these people were injured. At least 27 policemen were injured, two policemen were killed in that attack, in the initial launch that they made in the evening yesterday. [04:55:07] So that was in an instant. And afterwards I've met with people, I met with survivors who come out of that place who were inside and they initially thought that it was possibly bandits inside and they went upstairs, hid themselves, expecting that these people would possibly leave after looting money and valuables. But then, when they didn't and they instead went upstairs and started firing from the terrorists that's what even worried them more. And they were firing towards the policemen.

So they were clearly prepared to kind of go for an attack with the people -- with the policemen over there, not just come out. It kind of suggests that they were ready and they were not planning to come out of the place. They were ready to kind of open fire to the law enforcement and create a big stunt of a situation on there.

HOWELL: Saad Hammadi, we appreciate you being with us again and they're 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.

Again, I want to recap for our viewers around the world, what we have been following here out of Bangladesh. Some 20 people, 20 victims found inside a cafe, killed, apparently that the attackers used sharp weapons to do so. 13 other hostages were released in this standoff that lasted some 13 hours started in the evening, of the late evening and lasted well through the morning.

Officials say that the military, very heavily armed, went inside 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 effort.

This is "CNN Newsroom." We'll continue to follow this breaking news from Bangladesh after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)