Britain vows US 'full support' over synagogue attack

[FILES] 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. Andy JACOBSOHN / AFP

Britain on Monday promised “full support” to US investigators after it emerged that the man behind a hostage taking at a Texas synagogue was a British citizen.

“This was a terrible and anti-Semitic act of terrorism,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman told journalists after the attack during which British captor Malik Faisal Akram was killed.

British police have arrested two teenagers in Manchester in connection with Saturday’s 10-hour siege in the small Texan town of Colleyville that ended with the four hostages unharmed.The Muslim Council of Britain called the attack “completely unacceptable and we condemn the action in the strongest possible terms.”

“The act is all the more reprehensible since it was instigated at a place of worship where Jews were targeted,” the Council’s Secretary General Zara Mohammed said.

“This was, quite simply, a hate crime and an act of anti-Semitism. We are thankful that the hostages are unharmed. Though some may seek to exploit such incidents for divisive ends, we must double our resolve to remain united against such hatred.”