The two teenagers were caught in the south of Manchester and are now being questioned, the responsible investigative authority said on Monday night via Twitter. Further details were not initially announced.
The hostage-taking in the city of Colleyville near Dallas took place on Saturday. The perpetrator, whom police identified as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, took four hostages – including the rabbi – during a service in the synagogue this morning and holed up with them. After hours of negotiations with the man, special forces broke into the synagogue and brought the hostages to safety unharmed. The perpetrator died – the police left it open how exactly. The authorities also initially kept a low profile on the background.
Release of a Pakistani scientist as a motive
US media, citing investigators, reported that the hostage-taker wanted to free a Pakistani scientist imprisoned in Texas. She was arrested in Ghasni, Afghanistan, in July 2008 and sentenced to 86 years in prison by a US federal judge in 2010 for an attack on US soldiers in Afghanistan. During interrogation at a police station, she took a gun lying on the ground and aimed it at a US soldier and a translator, without hitting them. The woman had studied at an elite university in the USA. Later, US authorities added her name to a list of suspects linked to al-Qaeda terrorists. A lawyer for Siddiqui told CNN that the woman’s family condemned the act. He contradicted the hostage-taker’s claim that he was Siddiqui’s brother.
Biden: “Akt des Terrors”
US President Joe Biden described the kidnapping as an “act of terror”. According to initial findings, the perpetrator bought weapons after arriving in the country and spent his first night in a shelter for the homeless, Biden said on Sunday. The Democrat praised the police’s action, in which all hostages were released unharmed. “They just did a great job.” Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called on the population to fight anti-Semitism and hatred. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also condemned the “terrorist and anti-Semitic” act.
Family distances itself from action
In the UK, a brother of the man spoke up. The family is distancing itself from the crime and apologizes to those affected, the brother wrote on the Facebook page of the Muslim community in the northern English city of Blackburn. The kidnapper was mentally ill. The family spent time at Blackburn Police Station during the kidnapping. There she was in contact with the FBI and the hostage-taker, but could not dissuade him from his crime.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted his relief and gratitude after the hostages were freed. “This incident made it very clear to us that anti-Semitism is still alive and that we must continue to fight it worldwide.”
Authorities in other US cities, including New York and Los Angeles, said they had initially increased their presence at synagogues and Jewish institutions in light of the hostage-taking.
Source: Nachrichten
