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'If anyone tries to enter this building ... everyone will die':
Terrorist holding hostages at Texas synagogue
By ALYSSA GUZMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED:15:47 EST, 15 January 2022
A man claiming to be the brother of the convicted terrorist known as Lady Al Qaeda stormed a Texas synagogue on the Sabbath and is holding hostages, telling a SWAT team, 'If anyone tries to enter this building, I’m telling you… everyone will die.'
The unknown assailant took the hostages at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville during religious services around 11.30am, which were being live-streamed.
The live-stream cut off shortly before 2pm local time.
Before the livestream cut off, the unknown assailant can be heard saying, 'I'm going to die. Don't cry about me'
'Are you listening? I am going to die,' he repeated over and over.
The suspect claims his sister ''Lady Al Qaeda' Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted in New York for trying to kill US military personnel and is serving an 86-year sentence, according to Aaron Katersky of ABC News.
She has been reportedly serving time in a nearby prison since her conviction in 2010.
The man is holding the rabbi and three other people hostage, Katersky said.
The man is claiming to have bombs in unknown locations, but what extent the assailant is armed, is unknown.
A SWAT team has been sent to Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas,
where a man is reportedly holding hostages
Colleyville, Texas, police are conducting SWAT operations and locals are being told to evacuate the area. State police are also assisting the scene as authorities set up by a nearby middle school, according to WFAA. The school is around the corner from the synagogue.
The FBI is now negotiating with the man and can be seen on scene.
'The FBI negotiators are the ones who have contact with the person in the building,' a Colleyville spokesperson told CNN. Police have noted that there is no current threat to the general public.
The live-stream cut off shortly before 2pm local time, where the man can be heard saying: 'I'm going to die.'
The man is demanding the release of his sister 'Lady Al Qaeda' Aafia Siddiqui (pictured), who is serving an 86-year sentence for trying to kill US military personnel
According to Star-Telegram reporter Jessika Harkay, he was overheard saying: 'I'm going to die, are you listening? I'm going to die doing this alright? Are you listening? I'm going to die. Don't cry about me.' It is unclear who he was saying this too.
He reportedly also ranted about religion in between saying that he's 'going to die,' as well as made vague references to weapons and ammunition.
It is unknown if there are any injuries or fatalities at this moment.
Social media users have been offering prayers for Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, but his condition and location is unknown.
Congregation Beth Israel is a Reform Jewish synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, which has about 70,000 Jewish people, one of the largest communities in the state.
What it was like inside the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue
during the 11-hour hostage standoff
By Eric Levenson, CNN
Updated 2:39 PM ET, Mon January 17, 2022
SWAT team members deploy near the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Dallas, on January 15, 2022. - The SWAT police operation was underway at the synagogue where a man claiming to be the brother of a convicted terrorist has reportedly taken several people hostage, police and media said.
(CNN) It started like most any Saturday for members of Congregation Beth Israel.
Families of the Reform Jewish synagogue just outside Dallas-Fort Worth had gathered -- in person and online -- to participate in the Sabbath service, even amid the twin perils of a fresh pandemic wave and a swelling tide of attacks on Jewish people in the United States.
By day's end, the community of faith in Colleyville, Texas, would be at the center of a global drama involving a livestreamed hostage-taking, an imprisoned terrorist icon, an elite FBI rescue team and a final, frantic sprint to freedom.
More details may yet offer a deeper understanding of why it happened. But already, the tale is one of searing trauma, with the broader American Jewish community now again forced to be resilient as it's reminded of the ever-present potential for disaster.
There is much more, including videos at CNN...
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‘Drone attack’ kills three at Abu Dhabi airport
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the strike
Three people were killed and six wounded in an apparent drone attack on Abu Dhabi on Monday, UAE police have said. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have announced a strike “deep” in Emirati territory.
Three fuel trucks exploded in the industrial Mussafah area near storage facilities used by oil firm ADNOC, after which a “minor fire” broke out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport, the Emirati WAM news agency reported, citing police.
Preliminary investigation suggests that the blast and the fire were caused by a drone attack.
Police said that “no significant” damage was done to the area, later adding that two Indian nationals and a Pakistani national were killed, while six people were wounded.
Yemeni media reported that the Houthis had announced a military operation “deep in the UAE” and promised to reveal more details later on Monday.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree previously said that the rebels were confronting “a wide advance of the UAE mercenaries” and Islamic State fighters.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war in 2015 on behalf of ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The collation carried out bombing raids into the Houthi-controlled areas, while the rebels responded by firing rockets and sending armed drones into Saudi territory.
In 2019, a drone attack claimed by Houthis caused massive fires at several Saudi oil refineries operated by state-owned company Saudi Aramco.
Saudi jets bomb Yemen after Abu Dhabi drone attack
Bombing of Yemeni capital is reprisal for drone attack on UAE, Riyadh said
FILE PHOTO: People inspect the site of airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition on a workshop, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 5, 2021 © AP / Hani Mohammed
The Saudi-led coalition has launched an air raid on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, saying it was a response to the earlier attack by “Iran-backed” Houthi “terrorist” on Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi state media announced the raid on Monday evening, saying that the coalition’s F-15 fighters targeted and destroyed two ballistic missile launchers, allegedly used in the strike against the UAE.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Monday that the militia, which controls the Yemeni capital, used five “ballistic and winged missiles” and “a large number of drones” to target “a number of important and sensitive Emirati sites and facilities,” including the airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Saree added that the “successful” operation was “in retaliation to the escalation of the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression” and that UAE will remain an “unsafe state as long as its aggressive escalation against Yemen continues.”
Emirati authorities said two Indian nationals and a Pakistani were killed, and six more people were injured in the attacks. They said several fuel trucks exploded in the industrial area of Mussafah near the Abu Dhabi International Airport, starting a “minor fire.”
Saudi Arabia called the strike a “terrorist attack” by the “terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia” that amounted to a war crime against civilians, according to Brigadier General Turki Al-Maliki, the spokesman of the Saudi-led ‘Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen.’
Al-Maliki called the Houthis a terrorist threat undermining regional and international security, whose “piracy” also threatens trade and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. The coalition will respond “in a manner that achieves collective security for the interests of the international community,” he added.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan echoed the Saudis, condemning the attack on UAE and saying Washington will “work to ensure that the Iranian-backed Yemen rebels are held accountable for their actions.”
Why is Washington involved in this at all? It's a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The US has provided logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition since it invaded Yemen in 2015, seeking to reinstate President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, ousted by the Houthis the year prior.
