Biden calls Texas synagogue robbery an act of terrorism

Police vehicles at the entrance to the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. Brandon Bell (AFP)

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has described this Sunday as "an act of terrorism" the taking of hostages in a synagogue in the State of Texas that occurred on Saturday and that ended with the prisoners released.

The kidnapper died during the operation, but the police did not clarify if the assault team shot him down or if he committed suicide.

According to the FBI, the man who held a rabbi and three other people for more than 10 hours has been identified as British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44.

Nothing indicates that other people were related to the assault on the religious center of Colleyville, about 40 kilometers northwest of Dallas, according to a statement by FBI special agent Matthew DeSarno, in charge of the Dallas office. President Biden said that, although unknowns remained to be resolved, everything indicated that the attacker demanded the release of the convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, whom the deceased referred to as his sister, although there was no blood relationship between them.

"This was an act of terrorism" related to "someone who was arrested 15 years ago and has been in jail for 10 years," Biden told reporters during a visit to a hunger relief organization in the city of Philadelphia, on the occasion of the celebration tomorrow Monday the 17th of the life and work of Martin Luther King.

The UK Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, has also condemned "the act of terrorism and anti-Semitism".

My thoughts are with the Jewish community and all those affected by the appalling act in Texas.

We condemn this act of terrorism and anti-Semitism.

We stand with the US in defending the rights and freedoms of our citizens against those who spread hate.

🇬🇧 🇺🇸 👇 https://t.co/36Eb8lRQTV

— Liz Truss (@trussliz) January 16, 2022

Both the FBI and police rapid action teams were mobilized and negotiators contacted the suspect who was holding at least four people, one of them a rabbi, according to the CNN news network. As many as 200 troops were involved in the incident, including an FBI task force that flew to Texas from its headquarters in Quantico, Virginia. "All the hostages have been released safe and sound," said Greg Abbott, governor of that southern US state, late on Saturday night. "Prayers have been answered," Abbott tweeted. No injuries were reported among the hostages, one of whom was released before the others.

According to its website, Congregation Beth Israel began in 1998 as a chavurah, a small group of Jews who gather for prayer services.

The group officially established a synagogue in Colleyville in July 1999 and began holding services at its current location in 2005. The synagogue is led by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who wrote on Facebook this Sunday that he was “grateful and full of appreciation for all the vigils, prayers, love and support”.

“I am thankful that we made it.

I am grateful to be alive."

For immediate release from @FBIDallas regarding the #Colleyville incident.

pic.twitter.com/Bybpmao5JH

– Colleyville Police (@ColleyvillePD) January 16, 2022

According to official sources cited by US media, the reason for the hostage-taking was a protest against the incarceration in a jail in Fort Worth, Texas, of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman arrested for the attempted murder of several US soldiers.

Siddiqui was convicted in New York on terrorism charges in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.

The woman is known by the nickname

.

Siddiqui was born in Pakistan in 1972, but lived in the US in the 1990s.

He dedicated himself to the field of neuroscience: he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, for its acronym in English) and did a doctorate at Brandeis University, in that same state.

His name was on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list.

According to the version of US officials in 2014, Siddiqui remarried and on that occasion he did so with Ammar al-Baluchi, the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the intellectual author of the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers. September 2001.

The hostage-taking occurred during a religious service at the synagogue of the Beth Israel congregation, which was being broadcast live on the community's Facebook page, according to the local Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper.

Due to the rigors imposed by the pandemic, many of the faithful followed the religious service from their homes.

Colleyville police, through their Twitter account, reported that they were responding with a SWAT team to an emergency call at 6100 Pleasant Run Street.

“All residents of the immediate area are being evacuated.

Please avoid the area,” police warned.

More than 8,000 people connected to the video of the live broadcast once the first information about what happened was known on social networks, until finally the broadcast was suspended without the situation inside the synagogue having been resolved.

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América

and receive all the key information on current affairs in the region