Bangladesh mourns victims of Dhaka restaurant attack

Bangladesh has begun two days of mourning for those killed in an attack by militants on a restaurant in the capital Dhaka.

Most of the 20 people killed by the attackers were foreigners, among them a US citizen.

Nine Italians were killed and seven Japanese citizens. Italy's foreign minister said one other Italian citizen was still unaccounted for.

A 19 year-old Indian woman, who was a student at Berkeley in the US, was killed in the assault, India's foreign minister said on Twitter.

Two police officers were also killed and 30 people were injured.

Details of the assault emerged over the weekend, with among the most disturbing being reports that hostages who were unable to recite verses from the Qu'ran were tortured and killed.

Emory University in the US city of Atlanta said in a statement that two of its students were among the dead.

Abinta Kabir, from Miami, was an undergraduate at Emory's Oxford College, and Faraaz Hossain, who was from Dhaka, was an undergraduate student at the university's Goizueta Business School, Emory said.

The so-called Islamic State militant group has claimed the attack, saying it was targeting the citizens of "crusader countries".

"Let the people of the crusader countries know that there is no safety for them as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims," Islamic State said in a statement, also posting pictures of five fighters it said were involved in the attack.

Bangladeshi police said they had tried to arrest five of the seven attackers in the past.