Two killed as commandos storm siege cafe

SYDNEY, Monday

At least two people were killed as heavily armed Australian commandos dramatically stormed a central Sydney cafe to end a day-long siege sparked when an Iranian-born Islamist took several people hostage.
Security forces in SWAT-style gear intervened, unleashing a flurry of loud bangs and flashes in the eatery in the heart of Australia’s biggest city, after a number of the staff and customers managed to flee for their lives.

An AFP photographer saw one body carried out. Australian media said that in addition, the gunman was shot dead by police. Sky News also reported four people were wounded, three of them critically.

SUSPECT'S DETAILS

Royal North Shore Hospital had admitted a woman in her 40s with a gunshot wound to her leg, a spokeswoman told AFP. She was in a serious but stable condition.

A bomb robot, which is used to detect and disarm explosives, was subsequently sent into the building as police declared the siege over and medics tended to hostages.

“Sydney siege is over. More details to follow,” police announced on Twitter.

The hostage­taker, who earlier had unfurled an Islamic flag, was named by ABC television and other media as a 49-year-old Iranian-­born “cleric” called Man Haron Monis.

They published a photo of him sporting a beard and a white turban and said he was on bail for a series of violent offences.

The pre­-Christmas siege of the Lindt chocolate cafe began Monday morning and triggered a massive security lockdown in Sydney’s financial district as hundreds of police surrounded the site.

Monis’s former lawyer Manny Conditsis said the public could be assured that the siege was not the work of an organised terrorist group.

“This is a one-off random individual,” he told broadcaster ABC. “It’s not a concerted terrorism event or act. It’s a damaged­ goods individual who’s done something outrageous.”

The Australian newspaper called Monis a “self­styled sheikh” who had sent offensive letters to the families of dead soldiers and was on bail on charges of being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife.

It said he arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1996, lived in Sydney’s southwest and was “understood to be a fringe Islamist”. Police did not deny the reports. They said they knew who the hostage-taker was but would not identify him with operations continuing.

The government said earlier there was no clear motivation. But the Islamic flag appeared to be one commonly used by jihadist groups bearing the shahada, or profession of faith in Arabic script ­­ “There is no God but Allah; Mohammed is his messenger.”

The gunman, reportedly armed with a shotgun, made a series of demands through Australian media but they were removed after police requested they not be made public.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott convened a national security meeting to deal with the “disturbing” development.
More than 40 Australian Muslim groups jointly condemned the siege and the use of the flag, which they said had been hijacked by “misguided individuals that represent no one but themselves”.

“We reject any attempt to take the innocent life of any human being or to instil fear and terror into their hearts,” they said in a statement. Australia has been on high alert with the government raising concerns that citizens who have fought alongside jihadists in Iraq and Syria could return home and carry out “lone wolf” attacks.(AFP)