According to the communique, the arrests took place in south Manchester on Sunday, and both young people are being questioned by agents of the Anti-Terrorism Unit of that police force.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation reported on Sunday that the man who kidnapped four people at a Texas synagogue and held them as hostage until he was shot dead by police was British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44.
The hostage-taker was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a woman nicknamed Lady Qaeda, who is being held at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, after she was sentenced in 2010 to 86 years in prison for attempting to assassinate US officers in Afghanistan.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Sunday described Akram’s kidnapping as an act of terrorism and anti-Semitism.
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