http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/15/390381/australia-hostage-crisis-comes-to-end/
Mon Dec 15, 2014 4:58PM GMT
Armed Australian police officers are seen outside the Lindt Cafe on Philip St, Martin Place, in Sydney, Australia, on December 15, 2014.
Australian police say a daylong hostage situation in the country’s most populous city of Sydney is now over after armed police officers stormed a chocolate shop and café, where an undisclosed number of people were being held by a gunman.
Security forces raided the Lindt Café in Sydney’s central business district on Monday, ending the siege that lasted for more than 16 hours.
According to police sources, the gunman and two hostages were killed during the operation and four others were wounded.
After the police moved in, one weeping woman was helped out by the officers and at least two other people were wheeled out on stretchers. Several hostages had managed to escape the building before the siege was over.
Two people inside the cafe were earlier seen holding up to the window a flag of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front group. Agitated hostages had called a local radio station, saying the gunman demanded a flag of ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.
The hostage taker has been identified by local media as an Iranian, who had moved to Australia 18 years ago. Some blame the incident on those who support terrorism, including the United States, Israel, and certain regimes in the Middle East region that support such Takfiri groups as al-Nusra Front and ISIL.
Following the incident, Iran's Foreign Ministry vehemently condemned the hostage taking in Sydney.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, emphasized on Monday that recourse to inhuman methods and terrorism has nothing to do with the divine religion of Islam.
She noted that the Australian police have been totally abreast of psychological conditions of the hostage taker, who had immigrated to Australia about two decades ago.
On December 1, in a message posted on his Tweeter account, the hostage taker had described Iran and the supporters of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as terrorists.
In recent months, Australia has been on high alert after the Canberra government raised concerns over the return of the citizens who have joined the Takfiri terrorists operating in Syria and Iraq.
Earlier this month, Canberra said at least 20 Australian nationals fighting for terrorist groups, including the ISIL, had been killed in the two neighboring Arab states. Over 90 Australians have joined ISIL Takfiri militants there.
MP/SS
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