Key members of the French Government will meet today to decide on
measures aimed at preventing a repeat of the Paris terror attacks in
which 20 people died.
World leaders have telephoned President Francois Hollande to express their sympathies. Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's David Cameron as well as Italy's Matteo Renzi and Spain's Mariano Rajoy have agreed to join in a unity rally today in central Paris.
With explosions and gunfire, security forces early yesterday ended the three days of terror, killing the two al-Qaeda-linked brothers who staged a murderous rampage at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and an accomplice who seized hostages at a kosher supermarket to try to help the brothers escape.
Twenty people are dead, including the three gunmen. A fourth suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene - the common law wife of the market attacker - is still at large and believed to be armed.
Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen said it directed the attack against Charlie Hebdo to avenge the honour of the Prophet Muhammad, a frequent target of the weekly's satire.
The brothers were not unknown to authorities.
French President Francois Hollande addressed the nation at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on Jan 9. Photo / AP
One had a terrorism-related conviction for ties to a network sending fighters to battle American forces in Iraq, and both were on the US no-fly list.
Hollande urged his nation to remain united and vigilant, and the city shut down a central Jewish neighbourhood for fear of more violence. "The threats facing France are not finished," Hollande said. "We are a free people who don't cave to pressure."
The drama, which played out on live TV and social media, began with Said, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, methodically massacring 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices.
The next day a gunman that police identified as Amedy Coulibaly shot a policewoman dead south of Paris and then attacked the Paris supermarket, killing four hostages and threatening more violence unless the police let the Kouachis go.
The attackers had ties both to each other and to terrorist activities that reached back years and extended from Paris to al-Qaeda in Yemen. They epitomised Western authorities' greatest fear: Islamic radicals who trained abroad and came home to stage attacks.
It all ended at dusk with near-simultaneous raids in two locations: a printing plant in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the Kouachis were holed up, and the kosher supermarket in eastern Paris.
As scores of black-clad security forces surrounded both sites, booming explosions, heavy gunfire and dense smoke heralded the news that the twin sieges finally had ended.
Sixteen hostages were freed, one from the printing plant and 15 others from the store.
A member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula told the Associated Press the group's leadership "directed the operations and they have chosen their target carefully".
The attack was in line with warnings from the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the West about "the consequences of the persistence in the blasphemy against Muslim sanctities", the member said.
Minutes before police stormed both sites, Coulibaly had threatened more violence if authorities launched an assault on the two brothers, a police official said. A group of people holed up in the supermarket's freezer - apparently unbeknown to the gunman.
In the final assault, phalanxes of security forces converged on the store entrance behind a flash from a stun grenade - and fired inside. Frenzied civilians - one of them carrying a toddler - scurried out under escort by helmeted police in body armour.
Police said Coulibaly had been a co-suspect with Cherif Kouachi in a court case involving terrorism that never made it to trial.
Cherif Kouachi was convicted of terrorism charges in 2008 for ties to a network sending jihadis to fight US forces in Iraq.
According to a Yemeni security official, Said Kouachi is suspected of having fought for al-Qaeda in Yemen. France counts at least 1200 citizens in the war zone in Syria - headed there, returned or dead. Both the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda have threatened France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim population.
The publication Charlie Hebdo had long drawn threats for its depictions of Islam, although it also lampooned other religions and political figures.
Eight journalists, two police officers, a maintenance worker and a visitor were killed in the newspaper attack, including the paper's editor. Charlie Hebdo plans a special edition next week.
Meanwhile, the partner of Charlie Hebdo editor "Charb" - Stephane Charbonnier - has said she always thought he would be assassinated.
In emotional interviews, 41-year-old Jeannette Bougrab said: "I always knew he was going to die like Theo Van Gogh [the Dutch cartoonist murdered in 2004].
"I begged him to leave France but he wouldn't."
World leaders have telephoned President Francois Hollande to express their sympathies. Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's David Cameron as well as Italy's Matteo Renzi and Spain's Mariano Rajoy have agreed to join in a unity rally today in central Paris.
With explosions and gunfire, security forces early yesterday ended the three days of terror, killing the two al-Qaeda-linked brothers who staged a murderous rampage at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and an accomplice who seized hostages at a kosher supermarket to try to help the brothers escape.
Twenty people are dead, including the three gunmen. A fourth suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene - the common law wife of the market attacker - is still at large and believed to be armed.
The brothers were not unknown to authorities.
One had a terrorism-related conviction for ties to a network sending fighters to battle American forces in Iraq, and both were on the US no-fly list.
Hollande urged his nation to remain united and vigilant, and the city shut down a central Jewish neighbourhood for fear of more violence. "The threats facing France are not finished," Hollande said. "We are a free people who don't cave to pressure."
The drama, which played out on live TV and social media, began with Said, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, methodically massacring 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices.
The next day a gunman that police identified as Amedy Coulibaly shot a policewoman dead south of Paris and then attacked the Paris supermarket, killing four hostages and threatening more violence unless the police let the Kouachis go.
The attackers had ties both to each other and to terrorist activities that reached back years and extended from Paris to al-Qaeda in Yemen. They epitomised Western authorities' greatest fear: Islamic radicals who trained abroad and came home to stage attacks.
It all ended at dusk with near-simultaneous raids in two locations: a printing plant in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the Kouachis were holed up, and the kosher supermarket in eastern Paris.
As scores of black-clad security forces surrounded both sites, booming explosions, heavy gunfire and dense smoke heralded the news that the twin sieges finally had ended.
Sixteen hostages were freed, one from the printing plant and 15 others from the store.
A member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula told the Associated Press the group's leadership "directed the operations and they have chosen their target carefully".
The attack was in line with warnings from the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the West about "the consequences of the persistence in the blasphemy against Muslim sanctities", the member said.
Minutes before police stormed both sites, Coulibaly had threatened more violence if authorities launched an assault on the two brothers, a police official said. A group of people holed up in the supermarket's freezer - apparently unbeknown to the gunman.
In the final assault, phalanxes of security forces converged on the store entrance behind a flash from a stun grenade - and fired inside. Frenzied civilians - one of them carrying a toddler - scurried out under escort by helmeted police in body armour.
Police said Coulibaly had been a co-suspect with Cherif Kouachi in a court case involving terrorism that never made it to trial.
Cherif Kouachi was convicted of terrorism charges in 2008 for ties to a network sending jihadis to fight US forces in Iraq.
According to a Yemeni security official, Said Kouachi is suspected of having fought for al-Qaeda in Yemen. France counts at least 1200 citizens in the war zone in Syria - headed there, returned or dead. Both the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda have threatened France, home to Western Europe's largest Muslim population.
The publication Charlie Hebdo had long drawn threats for its depictions of Islam, although it also lampooned other religions and political figures.
Eight journalists, two police officers, a maintenance worker and a visitor were killed in the newspaper attack, including the paper's editor. Charlie Hebdo plans a special edition next week.
Meanwhile, the partner of Charlie Hebdo editor "Charb" - Stephane Charbonnier - has said she always thought he would be assassinated.
In emotional interviews, 41-year-old Jeannette Bougrab said: "I always knew he was going to die like Theo Van Gogh [the Dutch cartoonist murdered in 2004].
"I begged him to leave France but he wouldn't."
Tags
Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo offices
French President Francois Hollande addressed the nation at the Elysee Palace in Paris
News
Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo
Photo / AP
Terrorism
vows end to terror
