WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2022) The White House is monitoring the ongoing hostage-taking situation at a synagogue in the Texan city of Colleyville, US media report.
The Colleyville Police Department said on Twitter on Saturday that it was conducting Swat operations around the 6100 block of Pleasant Run Road. The immediate area was being evacuated.
In a later update the police said that the hostage situation was still ongoing and that people were being asked to "continue to avoid the area."
Colleyville Police Sgt. Dara Nelson was quoted as saying by CNN that FBI negotiators had established contact with the hostage taker. Nelson said that no one was injured and that there was "no threat to the general public."
According to The Wall Street Journal, in a video from the livestream on the synagogue's Facebook page an angry man could be overheard ranting and cursing and then said "You got to do something. I don't want to see this guy dead." The live feed was then cut out.
ABC news reported that an armed suspect claiming to have bombs took a rabbi and three others hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel on Saturday. A US official told ABC that the hostage-taker is claiming to be the brother of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, who allegedly had ties to al-Qaida (terror group, banned in Russia) and was convicted of attempted murder of a US soldier in 2010 and was sentenced to 86 years in prison. The hostage-taker is demanding to have his sister freed.
CBS said that Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman, is serving her 86-year sentence in a Federal prison, for trying to kill US officers in Afghanistan.
