The United Kingdom has offered US authorities "full support and cooperation" in the ongoing investigation into the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue on Saturday perpetrated by a British national, UK Home Minister Priti Patel said on Monday
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2022) The United Kingdom has offered US authorities "full support and cooperation" in the ongoing investigation into the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue on Saturday perpetrated by a British national, UK Home Minister Priti Patel said on Monday.
"Given that the alleged perpetrator was a British national, I offered the full support and cooperation of the police & security services as part of the ongoing investigation," Patel wrote on Twitter.
She also said that following the "horrific" incident, she spoke to US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
"I remain committed to rooting out antisemitism in all its forms and my thoughts are very much with those who were caught up in this deeply troubling incident," Patel added.
Earlier, UK police said that two teenagers had been arrested in Manchester in relation to the Texas synagogue attack, which both London and Washington have described as a terrorist act.
On Sunday, the FBI identified the man who took a rabbi and three others hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel on Saturday as 44 year old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram. The agency said there were no indications that others were involved.
Colleyville Police Chief Michael Miller told reporters late on Saturday that the suspect is dead and that all hostages had been released from the synagogue and were alive and safe.
US media reported on Saturday that the hostage-taker claimed to be the brother of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who allegedly had ties to al-Qaeda (banned in Russia). He was reportedly demanding freedom for his sister, who is serving an 86 year sentence in a US Federal prison for trying to kill American officers in Afghanistan.
