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Gunfire, Hostage Situation in Dhaka, Bangladesh; New Details in Istanbul Attack. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 1, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That is a grave situation if that is involved in this case. They are also the kinds of groups that are difficult to negotiate with, difficult and impossible to negotiate with. So it goes to what is the police response here. That's going to be an open question as we watch this.

Another reminder, we're coming to the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Why know ISIS, in particular, its leader, called for attacks during that time period. Sadly, that's why you are standing there in Istanbul. It is believed that that attack there, during the Ramadan period, that that was intentional. Even the attacker in Orlando who claimed to be carrying it out for the sake of ISIS, that was also during Ramadan, thought to be some connection there. So the timing is important, the location and the presence in that country of these two groups.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: What about specifically within this restaurant, Jim, in we know this is a pretty affluent area of Dhaka. We know there are a lot of ex-pats, diplomats. Number of a number of foreigners sitting inside of these restaurants as we speak. Can you speak to the significance of that particular target?

SCIUTTO: It fits the M.O. It fits the M.O. of both ISIS or al Qaeda. You go in high-profile areas where there are lots of foreigners because, sadly, there are often the attacks that the international community pays attention to. That's exactly why they went, for instance, after the airport in Istanbul. This is a very busy airport, of internationals there. We saw that in the list of victims. Many, many nationalities effected. Here you are an international compound. Important ones, diplomats, those tied to the international community. I can't say I know you reported this earlier that the State Department has said they have accounted for all U.S. nationals tied to the U.S. diplomatic presence there, but of course ere are many other countries there representative of this community and this is the kind of place where people visit, where nationals will go to on a Friday night to enjoy themselves. And it is the kind of target ISIS and al Qaeda and its affiliates have picked in the past.

BALDWIN: Correct.

Jim Sciutto, thank you for your voice this afternoon. I appreciate that.

Steve Moore, former FBI, law enforcement contributor for us here at CNN.

Steve Moore, on the tactics on what is happening right now as these elite bomb disposal units, law enforcement, SWAT teams are all surrounding this restaurant. We just had learned a moment ago that they are trying to communicate with these gunmen. How?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: How communicate with them? Well, if they are a well-equipped team, they'll have throw phones, different devices that they can actually through various means literally deploy inside the restaurant to try to talk to them. But as your previous guests have said, I see no good end game to talk to these people except possibly to find out information about their tactical abilities inside the place, because frankly, this is a nihilistic end game for them. They are only holding ground as long as they can to get as much news as they can, and then they are going to try to get the highest body count.

BALDWIN: We talk about these sort of attacks and talk about maximizing casualties. What do you make of the time of day? It is after midnight there in Dhaka. 20 to 30 people inside. Significant at all?

MOORE: I think it's more indicative of just the logistics of the operation. That's when they're going to get the most people in these restaurants. You're not going to find that many people hanging out in these places, because if you attack at 4:00, 5:00 in the afternoon, you might not get diplomats. This is a calculated attack. They probably cased the place and they determined that that's their best location to get a higher body count. And body count of Westerners. Notice that they didn't attack the Bangladeshi restaurant. This is a Western restaurant. The terrorists inside are likely, if they have explosives, setting them in ways that would be damaging to anybody who would try to assault the place. The longer you wait, the more time they have to fortify their position.

[14:34:55] BALDWIN: We know that there has been one police officer there in Dhaka in the midst of all of this that's been killed.

Steve Moore, thank you so much for your law enforcement perspective. I'm sure we'll bring you back in.

Coming up next here, we'll talk to an American teacher in Dhaka who was nearby, who has heard the gunshots. Hear that American's perspective next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: Back to our breaking news here out of Dhaka, Bangladesh. There has been one death, a police officer here, in this ongoing hostage siege involving at least six to eight gunmen who have taken over the Spanish restaurant just after midnight in Dhaka. 20 to 30 people inside, a number of foreigners. We know that the American embassy not too terribly far away. Quickly before I bring in my guest, we have heard from U.S. State

Department commenting on this ongoing siege saying the embassy in Dhaka as of now they have accounted for 100 percent of American citizens working under the chief of mission authority. Situation is ongoing. Too early to say who is involved or the motivation.

[14:40:26] That said, let me bring in Lieutenant Colonel Cedric Leighton, a CNN military analyst, who can speak to, Colonel, the lay of the land in Dhaka. What can you share?

LT. COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (voice-over): Sure, Brooke. Well, basically the U.S. embassy is on a street that feeds into a street that leads about two miles to the place where this happened and the restaurant is not too far from a hospital called United Hospital right alongside this lake. The basic area is very nice area. It is, of course, one of those areas that is frequented by foreigners, as you reported, and it is one of those areas where when I was there on temporary assignment for a very brief period it reflected more of the cosmopolitan life that most diplomats had been used to. Of course that makes it a prime target for these kinds of attackers.

BALDWIN: We know, as we were talking to a number of guests, talking about any sort of presence of al Qaeda, which would be al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, AQIS in this part of the world. The other question would be ISIS cells. We don't know who is behind this but when we're hearing that the police are trying to communicate, trying to negotiate with the gunmen inside, colonel, what do you make of that?

LEIGHTON: Brooke, I think those are certainly the steps that any police force would take in a situation like this. 'T expect it to work. Terrorists, the type that we think might be involved in this, are going to try very hard not to communicate with the police and achieve as many casualties as they possibly can. It is very unfortunate, but you have to have that approach to it because they want to make maximum impact. They want to make sure that they get their message across and if they negotiate a surrender or some kind of hostage swap, that usually doesn't get their message out.

BALDWIN: We mentioned, Colonel, a moment ago here -- I believe we have the Google map of where exactly this cafe is in relation to the American embassy, to a number of embassies, I understand, in this part of the city. Again, this happening after midnight. What's your take on clearly the target was -- I shouldn't say clearly. The people inside, the 20 to 30 people, I understand, many are foreigners.

LEIGHTON: Right. Any of these types of events usually target foreigners because of the impact the press coverage is going to be so much greater when there are especially if they are diplomats or military people. What you're seeing here I think is really a manifestation of that. They're trying to send a message that they have these -- this area under their control for at least a brief period, and they want to, in essence, strike fear into the hearts of the people that are assigned to Dhaka, that are stationed in Dhaka, and do what they can to disrupt relations between Bangladesh and the rest of the world. BALDWIN: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for calling in.

Let me bring in and eyewitness, someone who was standing two blocks away from this siege that's playing out where you are seeing all these pictures. This eyewitness is Fayad Munaim.

I understand you are very, very close to this restaurant. What have you seen, what have you heard?

FAYAD MUNAIM, WITNESS (v0: So around 9:00, I was sitting outside in Dhaka with my cousin and we heard three really large gunshots. And so it like two roads away. So it is really close. (INAUDIBLE) Then we heard reports all over saying there was some kind of attack on the restaurant, which is really close by. So we went and then the local news came (INAUDIBLE) and basically they said that there was actually a person that escaped. He was the supervisor. And they actually did a one-on-one interview with him. While they were talking to him, there was a huge bomb blast which we heard as well. Unfortunately, they apparently killed a local police chief (INAUDIBLE)

(AUDIO PROBLEM)

[14:45:33] BALDWIN: Fayad, I'm trying to hang on your every word but I just have to be honest, I'm joining you here from Istanbul and I'm having a tough time making out everything you're saying.

We're going to take a quick break and hopefully clear this up.

But I appreciate it. You're standing two blocks away. We'll try this again.

Quick break. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:49:42] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: We're back. On these pictures, in Dhaka, in Bangladesh, a country just east of Asia.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank so much for being with me here as we stay on this story.

We know this is a bakery during the day, a Spanish restaurant. There are six to eight what's being described as young men, these gunmen who have taken hostages, right around two dozen hostages as has been described to CNN from this restaurant owner who managed to escape here. One police officer has been killed. The police, the SWAT teams there surrounding the restaurant on the ground, trying to negotiate with these gunmen inside. No word whether or not that is at all successful or what sorts of demands may be being made right now.

Ivan Watson is one of our senior international correspondents who has done a bit of reporting here on Bangladesh and can speak to the violence specifically in this part of the world, especially in the last two years. Ivan, tell me about the so-called machete murders.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is important. We don't know who is behind this unfolding situation.

But let's give this context. We've been reporting extensively over the past two years on this grizzly phenomenon unfolding in Bangladesh of targeted killings. In one case, targeted killings of atheists and secular bloggers and writers and publishers, targeting killings with machetes of the non-Muslim religious minorities in Bangladesh, targeted killing of an Italian aid worker last year, of a Japanese businessman, last April, of two LGBT activists one of whom worked for the U.S. embassy. It was a grizzly and growing phenomenon by groups that seemed to be in competition. Some murders carried out by groups claiming to be acting on behalf of ISIS, others claiming to be allied with al Qaeda. In April, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh sounded the alarm after the killings of the two LGBT activists saying that the embassy tracked at least 35 similar attacks in a period of 14 months, and about 25 of them had been claimed by terrorist groups. In June, the Bangladeshi government went on the offensive rounding up more than 1,500 suspects as part of a crackdown on what it would say was this extremism.

What the Bangladeshi government did was it denied that ISIS or al Qaeda were active there. Instead it claims the main opposition party in the country, the Bangladesh Nationalists Party, was behind this growing phenomenon of violence. And that was called a political witch hunt by members of the opposition. Then you get a sense of the political polarization that was taking place and the growing jihadi- inspired violence.

We don't know who is behind this unfolding hostage situation. We do know that already the Bangladeshi security forces have suffered casualties. The police deputy commissioner, who told one of his police officers had been killed, said he himself was wounded by a bullet. This is a very serious situation taking place. And we don't yet know if this is jihadi-inspired violence. If it is, it would show a dramatic ramp up in the tactics being used by these extremist groups in this majority Muslim country that also has a secular constitution and a secular government -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Ivan Watson, thank you so much, on what's happening there in Dhaka.

Again, six to eight gunmen, 20 to 20 hostages, closing in on 1:00 in the morning there, Bangladesh time.

We're going to stay on that story.

Coming up next, we'll bring you up to speed on what we know, why I'm standing here in Istanbul, Turkey, tonight. What we've learned about the alleged mastermind, the organizer, the ISIS commander who apparently directed these three suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians here at the Istanbul airport. What we know today and moving forward, coming up next.

[14:54:19] I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. We'll get you back to the ongoing situation in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

But for now, let's talk about why I'm here in Istanbul, Turkey. Today, we have video surveillance showing these suicide attackers running through the airport terminal, seeming aimlessly. You can see as one of them running back and forth, throws his gun on the ground. Here he was.

(VIDEO)

BALDWIN: To talk about this, let me bring in Hugh Naylor, back with us tonight, the Beirut correspondent for "The Washington Post," covering everything happening here in Turkey.

Let's being, we've learned -- we've talked a lot about the three suicide bombers and where they're from. We've been getting the reporting from the Turks specifically pinning the mastermind or the organizer, this Chechen guy by the name of Akhmed Chatayev, known as Akhmed One arm, apparently he's missing an arm and a leg. You're saying what?

HUGH NAYLOR, BEIRUT CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, I mean, yes, from descriptions that we have of this guy, he's portrayed as the bad guy --

BALDWIN: ISIS commander.

NAYLOR: Isis commander, maybe in the Chechen wars with Russia. There are reports he was in Austria, tried to smuggle weapons into Sweden. We're hearing this, but I think, you know, the bigger picture here is --