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Charlie Hebdo attack



Charlie Hebdo suspects and third gunman killed in twin police raids









Four hostages dead after French Swat teams storm printing firm in Dammartin-en-Goële and supermarket in Paris














French police special forces evacuate hostages after launching the assault at the kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes, Paris. Photograph: Thomas Samson/AFP




Kim Willsher in Dammartin-en-Goële, and 
Jon Henley, 
Anne Penketh and 
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris


Saturday 10 January 2015 02.54 EST







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In two ferocious, near simultaneous assaults as dusk fell, heavily armed French elite forces shot dead the two gunmen behind Wednesday’s massacre at Charlie Hebdo and a third member of the terror cell wanted for Thursday’s murder of a young policewoman.
But while all the gunmen’s remaining hostages were freed unharmed, with stories emerging of how some hid in cardboard boxes and refrigerators to evade the attackers, the relief was marred by the news that Amedy Coulibaly, suspected of killing police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge on Thursday, had shot and killed four shoppers in the Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris that he stormed at about 1pm on Friday.
Key members of the French government were due to held a security meeting on Saturday morning to decide on measures to protect against further such attacks. World leaders were telephoning President François Hollande to express their sympathy and support. 
At a small printing company in Dammartin-en-Goële, 25 miles north-east of the French capital, police shot dead Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, responsible for the cold-blooded killing of 12 people – including two policemen – at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices.








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Gunfire and explosions at Dammartin-en-Goële siege.


The bloody climax to the unprecedented double hostage-taking brought to an end two days of drama and uncertainty that began on Wednesday morning when the Kouachi brothers burst into the Charlie Hebdo offices.
In the aftermath of the deadliest terror attack on French soil in half a century, BFM TV revealed on Friday night that it had been in telephone contact with Chérif Kouachi from inside the printing factory earlier in the day. In a calm, assured voice, the gunman could be heard telling the station he had been sent “by al-Qaida Yemen”.
On Friday night a member of al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen claimed that the group directed the attack against Charlie Hebdo “as revenge for the honour” of the prophet Muhammad.
Saying it had not released the tapes earlier to avoid compromising the police operations, BFM TV also replayed a conversation it had with Coulibaly in which he said the two attacks against Charlie Hebdo and the Montrouge police officer had been synchronised.
He said he had targeted the Paris shop “because it was Jewish”, that he was holding 16 hostages, and that four people had died when he entered the supermarket. He also claimed to be a member of Islamic State (Isis).
Agence France-Presse said the brothers had come out shooting from the printer’s warehouse where they had been surrounded since early morning. The local MP had earlier told iTele that they had told negotiators they wanted “to die as martyrs”.



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Saïd and Chérif Kouachi.
Photograph: Getty Images


Remarkably, a company employee managed to hide from the two gunmen throughout the day under a cardboard box, media reported, escaping unharmed after being able to speak to police on the phone and explain the layout of the warehouse.
But four people, apparently police officers, were injured in the raids, while a fourth, unidentified man – thought to be an accomplice of Coulibaly – also died at the kosher store at the Porte de Vincennes. Citing reliable police and judicial sources, French media reported that police timed their raid on the supermarket as Coulibaly was at prayer: he reportedly used the store’s phone and failed to hang up.








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French police storm supermarket in Port de Vincennes.


At the end of an extraordinary day that swung wildly between the two separate incidents, François Hollande described the past three days’ events as “a tragedy for the nation”. The French president saluted the “courage, flair, and efficacy of the gendarmes, the policemen, everyone who took part. I am proud of them,” and said France “has not finished with these threats. I call for vigilance, unity and mobilisation.”
Earlier, in a highly unusual step, the French president met the far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen at the Elysée Palace, while France prepared for a “Republican march” on Sunday which David Cameron and his German, Spanish and Italian counterparts, Angela Merkel, Mariano Rajoy and Matteo Renzi, were due to attend.
The Charlie Hebdo bloodbath prompted a global outpouring of outrage, with tens of thousands of people thronging to rallies in support of press freedom under the slogan “jesuischarlie” (“I am Charlie”). Barack Obama was the latest to sign a book of condolence in Washington, inscribing “Vive la France!” while in Paris, thousands had gathered on a day of national mourning and the Eiffel Tower dimmed its lights to honour the dead.
The magazine’s surviving staff, who have moved into the offices of the daily paper Libération, plan a special edition of one million copies on Wednesday.
A wanted notice naming Coulibaly as a suspect in the Montrouge shooting also said police were hunting for a woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, reportedly the gunman’s former girlfriend.



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Amedy Coulibaly, left, and Hayat Boumeddiene.
Photograph: Getty Images


It was unclear on Friday night whether or not she was also involved in the supermarket hostage-taking although Paris prosecutor François Molins said that she and Coulibaly had spoken more than 500 times to the Kouachi brothers over the phone.
Questions were being asked about how three men with known jihadi links had been able to carry out the attacks. Chérif Kouachi, 32, was jailed for 18 months for his role in a network sending volunteers to fight alongside al-Qaida in Iraq between 2003 and 2005.
According to L’Obs newsweekly, Coulibaly, 32, who had a list of convictions for theft and drug offences, was “very close” to Chérif.
Both were also investigated in June 2010 on suspicion of being implicated in a plot to break a militant leader out of jail.
At Dammartin, a witness interviewed by France Info radio said he had alerted police after seeing the Kouachi brothers, who were inside the print company, Création Tendance Découverte (CDT), as he arrived at the building.
“My client came to the door,” the witness, Didier, said. “I shook his hand, and the hand of one of the terrorists. They said: ‘It’s the police. Get out.’ ” He had not recognised the men and thought they were police officers, until one said: “We don’t kill civilians, anyway.”
About 1,000 children were evacuated from Dammartin’s schools and local hospitals were placed on alert. Swat teams deployed snipers on roofs and half a dozen helicopters buzzed low over the town.
One resident, Grégory, told BFMTV by telephone: “Everyone here is blocked in their homes. There are four or five helicopters flying overhead and an extraordinary number of police and gendarmes.”
At Porte de Vincennes, the entire area was swamped with police who shut down the main Paris ringroad, as well as schools and shops in the area. Authorities ordered all residents to stay indoors.
The spectacular attacks came as it emerged that the brothers had been on a US terror watch list “for years”.
The head of MI5 said Islamist militants were planning other “mass casualty attacks against the west” and that intelligence services might be powerless to stop them.






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more on this story














Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video

File footage of one of the Paris gunmen, Cherif Kouachi, arriving at court in 2008 on charges of helping to funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency



Published: 13 Jan 2015




Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video












Analysis Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris

The radicalisation of the Kouachi brothers began in a picturesque park in the capital while Amédy Coulibaly took the first steps towards terrorism in prison, but what the three had in common was growing up on the margins of French society



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris












Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras

Officials try to pinpoint when and where cameras found in possession of Kouachi brothers and Amédy Coulibaly were obtained



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras












Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices

Mobilisation of 10,000 troops to guard potentially vulnerable locations comes as prime minister warns that ‘threat still present’



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices














Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly




Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly








Analysis Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based








Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis








Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends

Olivier Tonneau




Published: 13 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends
















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