British man took hostages at Texas synagogue

A 10-hour standoff in Colleyville, Texas, ended with all four hostages freed safely and the man who attacked their synagogue shot dead. Police said the man, identified as 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, took the hostages—including the synagogue’s rabbi—during services on Saturday at Congregation Beth Israel northeast of Fort Worth.  He was shot and killed when an FBI SWAT team stormed the building.

What was Akram’s motive? The Associated Press reported that he was heard calling for the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of trying to kill U.S. military officers in Afghanistan and is in federal prison in Texas. Authorities suspect Siddiqui has ties to al-Qaeda. Akram was a British national who might have come to the United States only a few weeks before the attack, President Joe Biden said on Sunday. The U.S. government is working with London’s Metropolitan Police to learn more about Akram and his motive. Late Sunday, police in Manchester, England, said two teenagers were in custody in connection with the standoff.

Dig deeper: Read Lynde Langdon’s report in The Sift on the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.