Dhaka cafe massacre a taste of things to come, warns Islamic State
Extremist group threatens to launch attacks until ‘Islamic law is established across the world’
Islamic State (IS) has warned of repeated attacks in Bangladesh and beyond until rule by sharia, Islamic law, is established, saying in a video last week’s killing of 20 people in a Dhaka cafe was merely a glimpse of what is to come.
Five Bangladesh militants, most from wealthy, liberal families, stormed the upmarket restaurant on Friday and murdered customers, the majority of them foreigners, from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, before they were gunned down.
“What you witnessed in Bangladesh ... was a glimpse. This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win and the sharia is established throughout the world,” said a man identified as Bangladeshi fighter Abu Issa al-Bengali, in the video monitored by SITE intelligence site.
Bangladesh has rejected the IS’s claim of responsibility for the Friday attack and blamed it on a domestic militant group.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in Bangladesh, where IS and al-Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year. The government has also dismissed those claims.