Dhaka cafe assault 'a glimpse' of future: IS

Raqqa (Syria), July 6 (IANS/AKI) A barrage of fresh terror attacks will target Bangladesh and elsewhere until an Islamic caliphate prevails worldwide, the Islamic State group has warned in a new video.

The slaughter of 20 hostages in a Dhaka bakery was a mere "glimpse" of things to come, it said.

"What you witnessed in Bangladesh ... was a glimpse. This will repeat, repeat and repeat until you lose and we win and Sharia law is established throughout the world," says a Bangladeshi fighter in the video, quoted by the respected US-based terrorist tracking group SITE intelligence.

The video begins with images of recent attacks claimed by IS in Paris, Brussels and in Orlando in the US. IS also claimed the assault on Dhaka's Holey Artisan cafe.

"I want to tell the rulers of Bangladesh that the jehad you see today is not the same that you knew in the past," said the fighter, speaking from a bustling street in its stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria.

"The jehad that is waged today is a jehad under the shade of the Caliphate," the fighter says, speaking in Bengali and English.

Bangladesh blamed Friday's attack by gunmen on a domestic militant group, Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB), and denied IS's claim of responsibility.

Twenty hostages died in the assault, most of them foreigners, as well as two Bangladeshi policemen, a bakery chef and the five Bangladeshi gunmen.

The attack came after a spate of murders of secular bloggers, gay activists, academics and members of religious minorities -- all blamed on Islamists.

--IANS/AKI

mr/