Charlie Hebdo suspects shot dead in assault

by Agence France-Presse
January 10, 2015

(http://www.mb.com.ph/charlie-hebdo-suspects-shot-dead-in-assault/)

A photo taken on January 9, 2015 shows a general view of members of the French police special forces
launching the assault at a kosher grocery store in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris, where at least two people
were shot dead on January 9 during a hostage-taking drama at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris, and five
people were being held, official sources told AFP. Several hostages were freed after French commandos stormed
a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris where an assailant was holed up on January 9. After several explosions,
police stormed the shop in Portes de Vincennes and everal hostages exited the store shortly afterwards and were
taken to safety. AFP PHOTO / THOMAS SAMSON

Elite French police stormed a printworks and a Jewish supermarket Friday, killing two brothers wanted for the
Charlie Hebdo attack and an apparent accomplice who had taken hostages in two separate sieges that
traumatized France.
Explosions rocked a small printing firm in the village of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, and smoke
poured from the building as the heavily armed forces mounted their assault as night fell.

The two Islamists launched a desperate escape bid, charging out of the building firing at the security forces
before being cut down in their tracks, a security source said.
Meanwhile, in the east of Paris, gunfire erupted as police stormed the Jewish store, where at least one armed
assailant had seized five hostages after two people were killed in a gun battle.
The gunman was also killed, security sources said, as terrified hostages were seen running out of the store.
The dramatic climax to the two stand-offs brought to an end more than 48 hours of fear and uncertainty in the
country that began when the two brothers slaughtered 12 people at Charlie Hebdo in the bloodiest attack on
French soil in half a century.
The hostage-taker in the eastern Porte de Vincennes area of Paris was suspected of gunning down a
policewoman in southern Paris Thursday and knew at least one of the Charlie Hebdo gunmen.
French police released mugshots of the man, Amedy Coulibaly, 32, as well as a woman named as 26-year-old
Hayat Boumeddiene, also wanted over the shooting of the policewoman.
The Porte de Vincennes area in eastern Paris was swamped with police who shut down the citys ringroad as
well as schools and shops in the area.
Residents were ordered to stay indoors.
In Dammartin-en-Goele, only 12 kilometres from Pariss main Charles de Gaulle airport, French elite forces had
deployed snipers on roofs and helicopters buzzed low over the small printing business where the Charlie Hebdo
suspects had been cornered early Friday.
Police sources said there was a connection between the supermarket gunman and Cherif and Said Kouachi,
accused of carrying out Frances bloodiest massacre in half a century at Charlie Hebdo.
Ahead of the stand-off, police had already exchanged fire with the pairorphans of Algerian originin a highspeed car chase.
One witness described coming face-to-face at the printers with one of the suspects, dressed in black, wearing a
bullet-proof vest and carrying what looked like a Kalashnikov.
The salesman told France Info radio that one of the brothers said: Leave, we dont kill civilians anyhow.
Schools in the area were evacuated and residents barricaded themselves indoors as the standoff with police
unfolded.
One 60-year-old choked back tears as she said how elite forces burst into the shop where her daughter works
and ordered them to take cover.
My daughter told me: Dont be scared mummy, were well protected. She was calm but me, Im scared. Im
really scared, said the woman.
Prior to the standoff, the suspects had hijacked a car from a woman who said she recognised the brothers.

The spectacular attacks came as it emerged the brothers had been on a US terror watch list for years.
And as fears spread in the wake of the attack, the head of Britains domestic spy agency MI5 warned that Islamist
militants were planning other mass casualty attacks against the West and that intelligence services may be
powerless to stop them.
Wednesdays bloodbath at Charlie Hebdo, which had repeatedly lampooned the Prophet Mohammed, has
sparked a global chorus of outrage, with impromptu and poignant rallies around the world in support of press
freedom under the banner jesuischarlie (I am Charlie).
US President Barack Obama was the latest to sign a book of condolence in Washington with the message Vive
la France! as thousands gathered in Paris on a day of national mourning Thursday, and the Eiffel Tower dimmed
its lights to honour the dead.
And as a politically divided and crisis-hit France sought to pull together in the wake of the tragedy, the head of the
countrys Muslim communitythe largest in Europeurged imams to condemn terrorism at Friday prayers.
In a highly unusual step, President Francois Hollande met far-right leader Marine Le Pen at the Elysee Palace
later Friday, as France geared up for a Republican march on Sunday expected to draw hundreds of thousands.
Interior Minsiter Bernard Cazeneuve announced that a total of 88,000 security forces were mobilized across the
country and that an international meeting on terrorism would take place in Paris on Sunday.
Nine people had already been detained as part of the operation, Cazeneuve said.
Meanwhile, questions mounted as to how a pair well-known for jihadist views could have slipped through the net
and attack Charlie Hebdo.
Cherif Kouachi, 32, was a known jihadist convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq.
Said, 34, has been formally identified as the main attacker in Wednesdays bloodbath. Both brothers were born
in Paris to Algerian parents.
A senior US administration official told AFP that one of the two brothers was believed to have trained with AlQaeda in Yemen, while another source said that the pair had been on a US terror watch list for years.
The brothers were both flagged in a US database as terror suspects, and also on the no-fly list, meaning they
were barred from flying into the United States, the officials said.
The Islamic State groups radio praised them as heroes and Somalias Shebab militants, Al-Qaedas main
affiliate in Africa, praised the massacre as a heroic act.
Refusing to be cowed, the controversial magazine plans a print run of one million copies instead of its usual
60,000, as journalists from all over the French media landscape piled in to help out the decimated staff.
Its very hard. We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway because stupidity will not win,
said columnist Patrick Pelloux.