Two men arrested in US synagogue hostage investigation

Two men were arrested in the British cities of Birmingham and Manchester on Thursday morning as part of an investigation into the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue in the United States over the weekend, police said. of Greater Manchester.

The men remained in custody for questioning as UK counterterrorism investigators support US authorities in their investigation of the incident that has put American Jewish communities on edge.

The FBI is investigating Saturday’s standoff as “a terrorism-related matter in which the Jewish community has been targeted,” the department said.

The FBI has identified Malik Faisal Akram, a British national, as the man who held four people hostage at a Colleyville, Texas synagogue in an 11-hour standoff.

An FBI team killed Akram after one hostage was freed and three escaped.

Akram, 44, was known to UK security services and had been the subject of a brief investigation in 2020, a UK official told CNN on Tuesday.

That investigation was closed when authorities determined that Akram was no longer a threat.

In late December, he arrived in the United States via New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, he told CNN a US public safety source familiar with the investigation.

Investigators believe Akram was motivated in the kidnapping by a desire to see the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence in Fort Worth federal prison, they said.

She was not involved in the Colleyville standoff, her attorney said.

Two teenagers arrested Sunday in south Manchester were released without charge on Tuesday, according to PA Media, a UK-based news outlet.

Rabbi heroic about to leave the congregation