All hostages were freed unharmed late Saturday after an hour-long standoff at a Texas synagogue, where a man apparently demanding the release of jailed Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a former Pakistani scientist, had taken several captives. The personnel of a US SWAT team shot the hostage-taker dead.
Aafia Siddiqui is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of American troops and FBI agents who arrested her. Some 10 hours into the crisis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted that “all hostages are out alive and safe” at 9:30 pm (0330 Sunday GMT).
There were reports from journalists at the scene of a loud explosion and gunshots at the synagogue just before Abbott made the announcement. One hostage had been released unharmed a few hours earlier. It remained unclear how many altogether had been taken hostage.
All four people taken hostage in a more than 10-hour standoff at a Texas synagogue have been freed unharmed, police said late Saturday, and their suspected captor is dead. The siege in the small Texas town of Colleyville had sparked an outpouring of concern from Jewish organizations in the United States as well as from the Israeli government.
Colleyville police Chief Michael Miller told a news conference that a “rescue team breached the synagogue” on Saturday evening and rescued the three remaining hostages — all adults — being held inside. A first hostage had been released unharmed a few hours earlier. “The suspect is deceased,” Miller told reporters.
FBI Dallas Special Agent Matt DeSarno said the four hostages — who included a much-loved local rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker — did not need medical attention and would soon be reunited with their families. “He did not harm them in
any way,” he said. There were reports from journalists at the scene of a loud explosion and gunshots at the synagogue shortly before the press conference. That was more than 10 hours after police were alerted to the emer-gency at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, some 25 miles west of Dallas.
Officers evacuated the synagogue’s surroundings and cordoned off the area, the police force said. ABC News reported that the hostage-taker was armed and had claimed to have bombs in unknown locations. That was not confirmed by police although Miller said that “bomb techs are clearing the scene.”
Quoting a US official briefed on the matter, ABC reported the man was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui — a Pakistani scientist who in 2010 was sentenced by a New York court to 86 years in prison for the attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan.
Siddiqui’s lawyer said she “has absolutely no in-volvement” in the hostage situation in a statement to CNN. The lawyer confirmed that the man was not Siddiqui’s brother and said she condemned his ac-tions. DeSarno said police negotiators “had a high frequency and duration of contact with” the hostage-taker. “There were times when it stopped for periods of time and like many hostage situations, the relation-ship between the negotiators and hostage-taker had been floating a little bit and sometimes got intense,” he said.
