Twenty hostages, most of them foreign, were killed in the attack. Two police officers also died and 30 were injured.

Bangladeshi commandos rescued 13 people after a 12-hour siege, killing six gunmen and arresting another.

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one US citizen and an Indian were among the dead. One Italian is unaccounted for.

Bangladesh`s home minister said on Sunday that the attackers were not from the so-called Islamic State group, but belonged to a local militant group, which has been banned for more than a decade.

"They are members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh," Asaduzzaman Khan told the AFP news agency. "They have no connections with the Islamic State."

IS had earlier released photographs of the alleged attackers posing in front of a black IS flag.

Meanwhile, fresh accounts from survivors have emerged.

Argentine chef Diego Rossini told how the gunmen burst into the Holey Artisan Bakery on Friday evening with bombs and machine guns.

"I can`t still believe this happened," he said.

"It was like a movie, they pointed their guns at me and I could hear shots passing by. I was very, very afraid."

He said he escaped by running to the cafe terrace and jumping on to another building.

Who are the victims?

Nine Italians named by the Italian foreign ministry as: Cristian Rossi; Marco Tondat; Nadia Benedetti; Adele Puglisi; Simona Monti; Claudia Maria D`Antona; Vincenzo D`Allestro; Maria Rivoli and Claudio Cappelli

Seven Japanese. Five men and two women, four of whose names have been released by Japanese officials: Koyo Ogasawara, Makoto Okamura, Yuko Sakai and Rui Shimodaira

Two Bangladeshis named in national media as Faraaz Ayaaz Hossai, a student at Emory University in the US, and Ishrat Akhond

US citizen Abinta Kabir, also a student at Emory University

One Indian Tarishi Jain, 18, who was a student at the University of California, Berkeley

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