Hostage taker dead, hostages freed at synagogue
All hostages were rescued at Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, where authorities said an armed man had them trapped for roughly half the day on Saturday, according to Gov. Greg Abbott.
The governor announced the rescue, which involved roughly 60 to 70 officials from Washington, D.C., after reporters on the scene said they heard a loud explosion. The four "unharmed" hostages, all of whom are adults, are "not in need of medical attention," officials said at a press conference at 10:15 p.m. local time.
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Authorities had responded to the area, and the Colleyville Police Department tweeted it was evacuating the surrounding area after it was reported an armed man was holding a rabbi and at least three others hostage and demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence for the attempted murder of a U.S. soldier.
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The man was heard saying he was the brother of Siddiqui, but Muhammad Siddiqui, the biological brother of Aafia Siddiqui, is not the man holding the congregants hostage, his lawyer told the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
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Sources told the Washington Examiner that Siddiqui, 49, was previously married to a nephew of al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. She is being held at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, which is about 25 miles away from the synagogue, according to public records.
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The perp was trying to free a woman who was associated with al Qaeda, the Islamic religious bigot organization responsible for several mass murder attacks. Perhaps we will learn more about the perp in coming days.
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