Death Toll Climbs in Baghdad's Massive Bombing; Authorities Pursue Suspects in Bangladesh Attack; U.S. Police on High Alert for July 4th
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead of the international death, the death toll climbs in Baghdad's massive bombing. Another Brexit leader steps aside and Rio's mayor has some harsh words about the security ahead of the Olympics. Hi there, everyone, welcome. I'm Robyn Curnow for CNN Center. From Baghdad to Saudi Arabia, to Bangladesh, ISIS is streaming also battlefields and taking its war to civilians turning a shopping district into an inferno and devastating part of a bustling airport. In the final weeks of Ramadan, ISIS has been -- has claimed or being suspected of attacks that have killed hundreds of people in soft targets. Well, we begin with this attack in Baghdad, Saturday and turned a busy neighborhood street into a smoking pile of rubble. The death toll is now 215. Ben Wedeman has been at the scene and he tells us the number of victims is steadily rising as more remains are found.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A day and a half after that bomb blast went off at midnight Saturday night, workers are still looking for bodies, body parts still in the wreckage. People still don't know where their loved ones are. According to the Iraqi police, of the bodies recovered, 81 of them are so badly charred, they're beyond recognition. They're going to have to conduct DNA tests. At this point, the death toll is at least 200 with more than that wounded and it is expected to rise. Now, exactly what happened is not only together clear at this point but what we've been able to pin together or piece together is that out here in the street, a small refrigerator truck packed with explosives went off around midnight. The blast caused fires to start in all these buildings around it. Many of the department stores in this area with clothing, computers, perfume and cellphones, all of it created a raging inferno in which people were stuck on the upper floors. So it wasn't just a blast, it was the resulting fire, all of which amounts to the worst such attack in Baghdad in years. Back to you.</s>CURNOW: Thanks. Horrifying. Ben Wedeman there in Baghdad. Now, to another suicide bombing just outside the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, authorities there destroyed three other devices after the bomber wounded two police officers but only succeeded in killing himself. It happened in the early morning hours when the officers approach the bomber just 10 meters from the consulate wall. There's been no claim of responsibility. In Bangladesh, those two of the people wounded in the day of the siege in Dhaka are now suspects. That's on top of one taken into custody just after the attack. Now Bangladesh is in its final hours of official mourning for the 22 people killed in the city's diplomatic quarter. ISIS has claimed responsibility. But who is really to blame remains a matter of debate as our Ravi Agrawal has more.</s>RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: It was the most deadly terror attack in Bangladesh's history. And it was designed for the maximum impact and exposure. There is a backdrop to these attacks, however. For three years Bangladesh has suffered a spate of individual murders claimed by terror groups. The victims were mostly local writers and religious minorities. Friday was different. Terror analysts say the audacious drawn-out attack in a cafe filled with foreigners is a clear escalation.</s>AJAI SAHNI, INSTITUTE FOR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: Foreign targets are now for the Islamist, the most desirable targets. For one simple reason, they attract far greater attention than any amount of domestic terrorism will.</s>AGRAWAL: As Bangladesh mourns, people are asking who is responsible. South Asia terrorism expert, Ajai Sahni, says Bangladesh has a long history of low grade local Jihadi violence. While the Dhaka killers were clearly trying to invoke ISIS, he says it's too soon to say the group has a real operational foothold in the country.</s>SAHNI: What is crucial to understand here is that this is a one directional communication. We have no evidence as yet of any two-way communication in which both the perpetrators and someone from the ISIS was -- were exchanging information, one with the other.</s>AGRAWAL: Friday's attack is a game changer in more ways than one unlike with previous attacks across Bangladesh. Reports suggest that the Dhaka cafe killers were from upper middle class Bangladeshi families. Some of them spoke English fluently and they were adept at using social media. That's why experts are now saying that they could have been radicalized online. The Islamic State's in house magazine "Dabiq" recently ran an essay titled "The Revival of Jihad in Bengal" specifically called for attacks on Americans or Europeans. Bangladesh could also be seeing a battle between terror groups. Just on Sunday, Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent called for attacks on Hindus in India. They'd earlier made similar calls in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government brushes away these claims and she then said blames the violence on homegrown Islamist groups. In June, authorities arrested 14,000 alleged suspects, including members of the opposition BNP and its ally, Jamaat-e-Islami. Human rights groups send the opposition voices (ph) criticized the arrests as heavy-handed and opportunistic. But amid the finger pointing, people are dying. And while the terror groups seek a foothold in the world's fourth biggest home for Muslims, there's an even greater prize next door. India, Ravi Agrawal, CNN New Delhi.</s>CURNOW: Now let remember some of those who lost their lives in that attack. Twenty of the civilian victims in Dhaka were foreign nationals, seven were Japanese relief workers. Our Matt Rivers, has part of that story from Tokyo.</s>MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the families of the victims involved in this attack from Japan are in Bangladesh at this point and we know now that all of these families have visited the hospital in Dhaka to see for the first time the remains of their loved ones that were killed in this attack. We also know the vice foreign minister from Japan and a team of terrorism experts who were already on the ground in Bangladesh as a part of this investigation were also with the families at some point today. As for a timeframe on when those family members can bring the bodies of these victims home, that is still uncertain at this point. But we are learning more about these victims. They were all there as a part of a traffic relief project sponsored by a Japanese governmental agency here. They were trying to alleviate traffic issues in the City of Dhaka. They were there just doing good work, making people's lives hopefully a little bit easier. There was one 32-year-old man part of that group. He was killed in this attack. His father and his grandmother spoke about him here in Japan yesterday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was very proud of his work as he could work hard for the country and development. Everybody loved him. He is a good man.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was a very, very good boy. I really hope the news was wrong. But now, I cannot do anything.</s>RIVERS: And so the human toll of this event just absolutely tragic, but there are other implications here as well. The economic realities, for example, companies perhaps are afraid to do business in the near term in Bangladesh. So take Uniqlo for example, the major Japanese clothing maker told CNN earlier today that they will be no longer engaging in anything but the absolute most necessary business trips to Bangladesh. They are scaling back their business trips to the country out of an abundance of caution, safety concern. Other companies are doing the exact same thing here in Japan, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Motors, Obayashi Corporation, a very large construction firm, and Maruha Nichiro, a very big fishing firm. And so the human toll of this event cannot be overstated. Incredibly tragic, but there is also an economic toll if these companies do not feel it's safe to do business in Bangladesh as they seem to feel right now. The reverberations from this attack could be even wider than perhaps we had previously imagined. Matt Rivers, CNN, Tokyo.</s>CURNOW: Thanks to Matt for that report. Well, ISIS has been launching increasingly brazen attacks just as its losing ground along with tax and oil revenues in Iraq and in Syria. Well, CNN Global Affairs, Ms. Kimberly Dozier joins me now with more on that from Washington. Hi there, Kimberly. I mean this has been a very bloody Ramadan. Is what we're seeing a lashing out of a weakened organization?</s>KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think it has been long planned. They saw even a year ago that the forces of raid against them were going to start to bite. They've lost about 47 percent of their territory inside Iraq, 20 percent inside Syria. And as part of the fight back, they already have sent clandestine networks to Europe and some of their best people to Libya to setup training camps there. Now, they're under pressure in Libya right now as well. But they're using the momentum of having had a caliphate, having had a state with borders, the first militant group to do that, to continue to get followers and as they transform themselves to more of a terrorist group, a solely terrorist group that will then become their signature and they're managing to export that ideology successfully despite the loss of land.</s>CURNOW: So do you feel then this is an evolution, this is an evolving face of ISIS? Even if they had a postage stamp of territory, it's in a new phase.</s>DOZIER: Exactly. I mean, this is why Al-Qaeda's leaders always said, don't try to take and hold territory because that will be enough of a stick in the eye to the international powers that they will gather forces against you to take it away. Well, ISIS ignored that and did hold territory, but they held it for long enough to make enough of an impression around the world to spread their tendrils to something like 60 different countries where they've already targeted people. And so, we're going to be in the global community fighting a threat that what it does is-- what ISIS does is rather than set up their own organization in a new country, they look at the existing Islamic militant organizations and invite them to join. They don't demand too many changes. If you wanted to join Al-Qaeda, you used to have to do a lot of -- you had to fill out forms, you had to follow certain rules. ISIS instead, has a different model. It says to the Islamic groups, say, in Bangladesh that this five attackers from the restaurant attack apparently from, says to them, you can fly our banner as long as you swear allegiance to us. You choose the target, you choose how you do the attack.</s>CURNOW: But even with that in mind, the fact that they are losing territory, that they're under pressure, the lack territory means less people to govern, less people to govern means less taxation, which of course means less money to run this organization, and it is run as some sort of corporate entity in many ways. Surely, there is some sort of pressure on how they go forward.</s>DOZIER: Well, absolutely. In the war zones of Iraq and Syria, their traditional state is under threat. They've had to have fighter salaries. They don't have the money to run their war machine as they once did. But they've already started this evolution of establishing themselves in other parts of Africa, Yemen, places where they can continue to spread the ideology to local groups so that they don't need to hold that territory.</s>CURNOW: OK. And then the question is, I supposed, are intelligence agencies and militaries adaptive enough to deal with this changing threat? Thanks so much, Kimberly. I really appreciate your perspective.</s>DOZIER: Thank you.</s>CURNOW: Well, in the United States, police are treating Independence Day celebrations as potential terror targets. Cities throughout the nation are on high alert for the Fourth of July holiday which is today. Our Deborah Feyerick reports.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After a series of deadly attacks overseas, U.S. counter terror officials heightening security measures at so-called soft targets across the country, including the July 4th fireworks displays tonight. Cathy Lanier,</s>CHIEF OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: We have a pretty tight security plan for the Fourth of July.</s>FEYERICK: In the nation's capitol, much of the dramatic increase in security will be hidden.</s>CHIEF ROBERT MACLEAN, U.S. PARK POLICE: We do have technology that folks will not see.</s>FEYERICK: The biggest fireworks show in America along New York City's East River, with an estimated 3 million spectators, has the police in the Big Apple on high alert.</s>BILL BRATTON, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: You will see a very significantly enhanced police presence in the city.</s>FEYERICK: Out on the water, officials patrolling the harbors around Manhattan and conducting security dives along the Macy's fireworks barges.</s>BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: We are very, very vigilant. We'll have exceptional NYPD presence to keep everyone safe.</s>FEYERICK: The New York City mayor deploying 500 plus highly trained, highly armed officers ready to prevent terror. The first Fourth of July the critical response team will be out in full force.</s>DE BLASIO: It sends a powerful message to anyone who might try and disrupt that we are ready to prevent that.</s>FEYERICK: Tensions already high.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sounded like a cannon.</s>FEYERICK: After a small explosion in Central Park Sunday left a tourist's foot mangled.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His foot is all but detached. His friends claim he was walking down the rocks and stepped on something.</s>FEYERICK: That something believed to be an experiment with fireworks or a homemade explosive, set off after a young tourist accidentally stepped on it, according to the</s>NYPD. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe this could have been put here as some sort of experiments.</s>CURNOW: Well, our Deborah Feyerick reporting there. At this point, there's no evidence that that Central Park explosion is related to terrorism, also they are on a specific or credible threats directed at any New York, at New York, or any other city right now for the Fourth of July. Coming up here on CNN, more leadership changes in the wake of the Brexit vote. A key voice behind the movement is stepping down as head of his party. Five candidates battle to lead a post-Brexit Britain. Details ahead. Plus Rio's mayor has some harsh words for state officials ahead of the Olympics. Our interview with him, that's also next.