The Siege is Over

Update: The Daily Mail has a large number of photos.

Police in Sydney stormed the Lindt Café, released the hostages, and killed the terrorist (only one is mentioned). If these early reports are correct and only one hostage has been killed, the Australian police and security services deserve the highest accolades.

The latest updates from The Telegraph (hat tip Fjordman). The times listed are GMT; Sydney time is about nine hours later, in the wee hours of the morning:

  15.12   At least five further hostage have escaped from the Sydney siege. Gunshots were heard. Police appeared to be prepared for them running out.

It is still unclear how many hostages remain in the cafe – but it could now be fewer than five.

  15.15   Gunflight is underway in the Lindt cafe. The second round of gunfire appeared to take police by surprise. There were at least two, possibly three rounds of gunfire. We have halted and will edit our live stream to prevent disturbing images being broadcast. Saffron Howden reports:

Sustained sound of gunfire for more than 10 seconds just now. Alarms are going off.

  15.18   Two paramedics seen entering the Lindt cafe.
  15.22   Reports that 11 hostages have been rescued – added to the five earlier today. Several of the hostages were carried away on stretchers.
  15.29   A bomb disposal robot has been sent into the cafe. We are back with the live stream.
  15.32   A bomb disposal expert in his huge green suit has just come out of the cafe – walking and looking calm rather than running.
  15.43   Channel Seven reporting two people dead and three injured. Other reports state five people being treated for injuries.

He spoke to a fireman and a policeman.

He’s now just going back in – entering the building again in a calm manner. Police and firemen are milling around on the corner.

  15.49   Police confirm the siege is over
  15.55   A woman who appears to have been shot in the foot is taken on a stretcher out of the cafe.
  16.09   Local media is reporting the gunman has been killed and that at least one hostage is dead.

Police have not yet confirmed that.

More details from Reuters, but no mention of the casualties:

(Reuters) – Australian security forces on Tuesday stormed the Sydney cafe where several hostages were being held at gunpoint, in what looked like the dramatic denouement to a standoff that had dragged on for more than 16 hours.

Heavy gunfire and loud bangs rang out shortly after 2 a.m. local time (10a.m. ET on Monday), and moments earlier at least six people believed to have been held captive had managed to flee the scene.

Medics moved in and took away several injured people on stretchers, but it was not clear whether they included the gunman who had been named by a police source only minutes earlier.

He was identified as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee and self-styled sheikh facing multiple charges of sexual assault.

He was also found guilty in 2012 of sending offensive and threatening letters to families of eight Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, as a protest against Australia’s involvement in the conflict, according to local media reports.

During the siege, hostages had been forced to display an Islamic flag, igniting fears of a jihadist attack.

“There’s no operational reason for that name to be held back by us now,” said a police source, who declined to be identified, when asked to confirm reports the hostage taker was Monis.

At least five hostages were released or escaped on Monday, with terrified cafe workers and customers running into the arms of paramilitary police.

A further 15 or so hostages were understood to have been holed up inside the cafe, said Chris Reason, a reporter at Channel Seven, whose office is opposite the cafe.

See the linked article for video.

18 thoughts on “The Siege is Over

  1. We are not all the same. Muslims, mosques, extreme tracking and control needed. No citizenship for Muslims due to their anti-human vile koranic belief that all that matters in life is death, killing the host and getting a ride on board virgin airways.

  2. “Man Monis is definitely known the New South Wales police force and the state judiciary. He was convicted in 2013, after a very lengthy legal battle over a number/series of letters he wrote to families of dead Australian soldiers who had been fighting in Afghanistan. (image of Man Monis walking on sidewalk with hand written signs stating ‘Kevin, don’tkill Afghan children anymore.’)

    Last year he was charged with being an accessory to murder of his ex-wife. He and his current girlfriend are being charged with his ex-wife’s murder. And earlier this year he was charged with a number of offenses relating back to 2000 and 2002 when he was a ‘so-called-spiritual-healer’ operating a shoppe in Wentworth Hills (sp?) in midwest.

    So, Monis appeared in the high court last Friday where he filed a last failed attempt to get some of the current charges against him dropped. He was believed to be very upset that had occurred. A number of high court challenges were thrown out in recent years. He also was making a number of bizzare and sort of unusual posts on his personal website and facebook in recent days. So his ongoing legal battle over him sending letters to families of dead Australian soldiers has somewhat consumed him. It’s a battle that’s been going on since 2010. And his appearances in court have been rather irratic. He’d come straped in chains. Other times he’d held up signs. Other times he’s chained himself up outside of the courtroom. He’s always been very vocal about his opposition to Australian involvement in the war in Afghanistan. In recent times he’s taken to making a number of posts against Tony Abbott.

  3. The above comment was only partially pasted . . .here is the comment in it’s entirety including link to source:

    Video clip from Fairfax Media (via: TheAge) illustrates “Man Haron Monis” (aka ‘Sheik Haron’) in 2010 waving a flag and making a public statement to reporters while wearing a white turbon and flowing robes, as he states for the cameras:
    [transcript of video]

    “I do everything I do for the safety of all nations – including the nation of Australia. We want peace. We don’t want war.”

    Video clip picks up with Fairfax Media’s Crime and justice editor, Nick Ralston reporting:

    “Man Monis is definitely known the New South Wales police force and the state judiciary. He was convicted in 2013, after a very lengthy legal battle over a number/series of letters he wrote to families of dead Australian soldiers who had been fighting in Afghanistan. (image of Man Monis walking on sidewalk with hand written signs stating ‘Kevin, don’tkill Afghan children anymore.’)

    Last year he was charged with being an accessory to murder of his ex-wife. He and his current girlfriend are being charged with his ex-wife’s murder. And earlier this year he was charged with a number of offenses relating back to 2000 and 2002 when he was a ‘so-called-spiritual-healer’ operating a shoppe in Wentworth Hills (sp?) in midwest.

    So, Monis appeared in the high court last Friday where he filed a last failed attempt to get some of the current charges against him dropped. He was believed to be very upset that had occurred. A number of high court challenges were thrown out in recent years. He also was making a number of bizzare and sort of unusual posts on his personal website and facebook in recent days. So his ongoing legal battle over him sending letters to families of dead Australian soldiers has somewhat consumed him. It’s a battle that’s been going on since 2010. And his appearances in court have been rather irratic. He’d come straped in chains. Other times he’d held up signs. Other times he’s chained himself up outside of the courtroom. He’s always been very vocal about his opposition to Australian involvement in the war in Afghanistan. In recent times he’s taken to making a number of posts against Tony Abbott.

  4. We are stark raving bonkers. Another Muslim “refugee”. With “refugees” like this getting through our soft underbelly of culturally sensitive rubbish what is to say there aren’t divisions of these “peaceful religious” already in place in the network of mosques (clue: barracks / bayonets) being built in strategic locations. Hopefully we won’t have to wait until the “religion of peace” starts leaping out of trenches and tunnels. How any Muslim got access to any Christian country after 9/11 is (forgive the pun) terrifying.

    • Pomp Doux
      What you said is correct. I agree with Haron: why on earth do we go there and kill them, to prevent killing each other. When they kill each other they don’t blame others.
      We go there build schools three times and three times the same schools are destroyed. We go and build them again, whenever we close a school in western countries for lack of money, somehow we find money for a school in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Usually the two pieces of news are announced at the same newshour.
      Why (is) are he/ Jihadis in Australia or any “christian” country in the first place? Who brought them? Why? How are they useful?

      Now no one can stop coming here … everywhere. Their intention is long known: Allah has blinded the west mentally, and they say they are here sent by Mo to complete take over of the world.

      allah they say , gives power, and lands to those who always wave the sword. They are not lying think about the last 1435 years and no.. And allah has given stupidity to Christians, Jews, Hindus over the last 1435 years to facilitate mo’s invasions.

  5. All done in the name of Islam ! Wake up people they want your land ,your house – everything !

  6. I would like to make a minor correction. Sydney time is now 11 hours ahead of GMT. It would be 10 hours ahead, but Daylight Saving adds another hour. As I write this, it is now 8:05 am on Tuesday here in Sydney.

  7. From Wikipedia, Moslems are about 2.2% of the population in my country, Australia. In my opinion, this means that there will inevitably be more incidents like this one, or worse – consider the tube and bus bombings a few years ago in London. Anyone who wants to keep the percentage from increasing is derided as a bigot, so it will continue to increase. Hopefully, we will stop before we get to the French level of about 10%, with car burnings and hundreds of no-go areas (“sensitive zones”).

  8. Huge relief its over and loss of life was low. In a twist of irony though the “happy ending” will not do much to wake people up since this time the consequences were relatively light.

    • What are you talking about? This is another warning from our Muslim enemy. There has been a huge loss of life and Light. The fear and foreboding created by any criminal or otherwise incident involving a Muslim passport or visa holder is a huge casualty for the real citizens. To see the fully bag headed women with their thuggish dominant male partners “flowering their strut” in front of Australians at the scene. Let’s hope Oz finds a solution that turns it down a more civilised path than the mother country.

    • And the bien-pensants of Australia — like everywhere else in the Western world — are stumbling over themselves to show who can be the nicest to Muslims.

    • Umm, Adam, the “loss of life was low”?! That’s just fabulous. I’m sure the parents, siblings, partner, colleagues and friends of Katrina Dawson are over the moon that she was only one of two fatalities. As would be those of the even younger store manager Tori Johnson.

      Appropos the murderer – please don’t refer to him as “Sheik” as it is a self-bestowed honorific – I’ll bet my bottom dollar his time in Australia since 1996 has been spent (apart from committing many other crimes – including 47 sex offences) living on a fraudulently obtained Disability Pension.

      One can also be guaranteed that Mr Monis’ appeal to the High Court of Australia (lost last Friday) was also entirely funded by Australian taxpayers through the Legal Aid Commission: a taxpayer funded state government agency whose largesse is only available to those on (officially) very low incomes. To get to the High Court one has to appeal upwards through many judicial layers so, conservatively, Mr Monis’ legal frolics would have cost Australia many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Possibly half a million. By comparison working Australian men on average incomes simply cannot afford to contest custody proceedings over their children when divorcing/being divorced. So they lose access to their children as Legal Aid isn’t interested in funding the maintenance of the relationship between fathers and their children.

      • I’m not trying to read Adam’s mind, but let me suggest that he’s not minimizing the value of the lives taken, but noting that the toll could have been considerably higher. Notice he puts “happy ending” in scare quotes. The meaning of that second sentence seems to be that two casualties aren’t enough to wake most people up.

        And that seems plausible, considering that 9/11, Fort Hood, Boston Marathon etc. have left a great many Americans — including most of the ruling authorities — unpersuaded that Islam itself is a problem. It’s the same with 7/7, Lee Rigby, etc. in Britain.

  9. Two precious intelligent lives have been wasted by this piece of Muslim scum and the all the Muslims in Australia can do is bleat about suffering a possible backlash. Who gives a rat’s tail about them?

    If any of the Muslims had a shred of decency they would deny their fascist religion and apologize to the world!

  10. Prime Minister Abbott: “We don’t know the motivation”.
    Chief of Police: “We’re still trying to work out what it stands for”.

    Holy Mary, Mother of God these “leaders” are insane.

  11. Mr Monis has in fact been living off welfare since the year 2000 at least. It is therefore also extremely likely that he was also living in taxpayer funded public housing as welfare dependents get priority. My earlier supposition that the cost of his legal defence in his multiple criminal cases (and legal appeals from his convictions in such) was taxpayer funded was correct. It would be a fascinating exercise to calculate the overall financial cost to Australia of permitting this single asylum seeker to reside here since 1996.

Comments are closed.