sydney siege

Cathy Wilcox Sydney Morning Herald

Sydney Siege

A Cartoon Conversation

Brett Lethbridge Courier-Mail

Christopher Downes Hobart(Mercury)

Colin Wicking NT News

Craig Mann The Gold Coast Bulletin

David Pope Canberra Times

David Rowe Financial Review

Harry Bruce Townsville Bulletin

Jon Kudelka The Australian

Jos Valdman The Advertiser

Mark Knight Herald Sun

Warren Brown The Daily Telegraph

David Rowe Financial Review

Alan Moir Sydney Morning Herald

Andrew Dyson The Age

Bill Leak The Australian

Brett Lethbridge Courier-Mail

John Tiedemann Daily Telegraph

Chris ROY Taylor Herald Sun

David Pope Canberra Times

On 15–16 December 2014, a lone gunman, Man Haron

Monis, held hostage nine customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café located at Martin Place in Sydney,

Australia. After a 16-hour standoff, during which areas of

the Sydney central business district surrounding the site were cordoned off and nearby buildings locked down, police

officers from the Tactical Operations Unit stormed the café upon hearing gunshots from inside. At least one hostage

was shot by Monis, who himself was shot dead after police

entered in response. Two hostages died, while three hostag-es and a police officer were injured during the police raid.

Early on, hostages were seen holding a jihadist black flag up against the window of the café, with the Islamic shahadah

creed written on it in Arabic. Initially some media mistook it for the flag used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Le-

vant (ISIL); the gunman later demanded that an ISIL flag

be brought to him in the middle of the crisis. The gunman was described as having indicated a "political motivation".

Police treated the event as a terrorist attack, and negotiated with Monis throughout the day. About 50 Muslim

groups issued a joint statement in which they condemned the incident.

The gunman, born in Iran as Mohammad Hassan Manteghi, had been granted political asylum in Australia in 2001. He

had a history of criminal charges including sexual assault,

and was to be tried as an accessory in his ex-wife's murder. He had been convicted for criminal use of the postal service

to "menace, harass or cause offence", for sending letters to the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan in which he

called the soldiers murderers.

Eric Lobbecke The Australian

Harry Bruce Townsville Bulletin

John Polly Farmer Hobart Mercury

John Spooner The Age

Jos Valdman The Advertiser

Lindsay Foyle newmaltilda

Mark Knight Herald Sun

Warren Brown The Daily Telegraph

Bill Leak The Australian

John Polly Farmer Hobart Mercury

John Spooner The Age

Paul Zanetti The Cains Post

John Spooner The Age

Warren Brown The Daily Telegraph

Brett Lethbridge Courier-Mail

Alan Moir Sydney Morning Herald

John Polly Farmer Hobart Mercury

Mark Knight Herald Sun

Warren Brown The Daily Telegraph

Mark Knight Herald Sun

Warren Brown The Daily Telegraph

Neil Matterson The Sunday Mail (Queensland)

Peter MacMullin Sunday Mail (Adelaide)

John Polly Farmer Hobart Mercury

Five days on from the Martin Place siege that claimed two lives and placed

Sydney's CBD in lockdown, and questions still remain about what transpired inside the Lindt cafe, especially during the early hours of Tuesday.

Given the nature of the siege and what transpired when police stormed the cafe, a senior police source said there would not be one single person who

knew what took place.

About2am, with the siege now in its 17th hour, Monis began sorting the 18

hostages into separate groups inside the cafe, and one group kicked down an internal door and made their escape, a father of one hostage said.

Fairfax Media has been told that Monis, believed to be armed with a pump-action shotgun, managed to fire five rounds.

There have been varying reports that Ms Dawson was shot either by police,

or by Monis -- perhaps even both -- however, on Friday police sources were

still adamant it was too early to speculate.

Security experts have asked why commandos, located at Holsworthy and

who trained specifically for hostage situations before the G20 summit just weeks earlier, were not brought in.

However, the NSW police force's tactical operations group is a highly skilled

unit that deals with at least 200 "high-risk" situations, including siege and

hostage scenarios, each week.

Even while its officers were stationed outside the Lindt cafe on Monday

night, another unit had been dispatched to Sydney's western suburbs to de-

Eric Lobbecke The Australian

Cathy Wilcox Sydney Morning Herald

www.theaustraliancartoonmuseum.com.au

Ron Tandberg The Age

Cathy Wilcox