Charlie Hebdo suspects, accomplice reportedly killed as French police storm hostage scenes
Suspects in Charlie Hebdo attacks reportedly killed in shootout with French police
Hundreds
of heavily armed police moved in on two Al Qaeda-linked suspects in the
Charlie Hebdo magazine slayings where they were holed up near Charles
de Gaulle Airport and shot them dead as they attempted to escape in a
hail of gunfire, French authorities reported Friday.
The suspects,
brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, were killed in the late-afternoon
police storming of a printing shop warehouse in the town of
Dammartin-en-Goele outside Paris, and a hostage they had taken was
freed, police told French media.
Meanwhile, an alleged accomplice holding hostages in a kosher market in Paris was reportedly killed an a police assault.
France
2 television showed special operations vehicles moving in on both the
airport-area hideout where the brothers were surrounded and the market
in southeastern Paris where the reported accomplice was holding at least
five people and threatening to kill them if the Kouachi brothers were
attacked.
The
brothers had told police negotiators they "want to die as martyrs,"
said Yves Albarello, a member of parliament for Siene-et-Marne, the
region where the standoff unfolded.
Police cordoned off area roads and closed two runways of the busy airport as helicopters hovered over the scene.
Scores
of police in riot gear surrounding the kosher market on the opposite
side of the city moved simultaneously on the alleged accomplice in the
area near the Porte de Vincennes. Sirens wailed and dozens of ambulances
stood by as police vehicles moved in and stun grenades flared. Shooting
had been heard there earlier in the afternoon and at least one person
was gravely injured then, according to French television.
Police
earlier Friday identified Amedy Coulibaly, 32, as a suspect in the
killing Thursday of a police officer in the Montrouge area of Paris.
Coulibaly and his girlfriend, 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene, were
reported by police to be acting on behalf of the Kouachi brothers in
taking hostages at the market.
Initial reports after the market
was stormed said Coulibaly was killed in the operation. There were also
reports that some of the hostages were killed. Several people seen
fleeing the cordoned-off market area were believed to be hostages who
were freed or managed to escape as police moved in.
French
television quoted police as saying that Boumeddiene was still at large.
It was unclear whether she had been with Coulibaly in the grocery store
and escaped with the hostages or had been assisting him from outside.
Fearing
further attacks by what authorities have said may be a larger terror
cell connected to the Kouachis, the Paris mayor’s office ordered shops
in the bustling Jewish district of Le Marais closed just hours ahead of
the Sabbath. Le Marais, a popular shopping area with tourists and
Parisians, is in the heart of the city and several miles from the police
operations at the northeast and southeast fringes of Paris.
French
media later reported another hostage situation in a jewelry story in
Montpellier, but it was unclear if that was related to the Kouachis and
their accomplices.
A massive manhunt involving more than 80,000
law enforcement officers had been underway for two days for the Kouachi
brothers, identified by authorities as Al Qaeda-affiliated militants and
suspects in Wednesday’s attack on the magazine where a dozen people
were shot dead.
U.S. officials in Washington briefed by French
intelligence ahead of the police operation to say that the main
hostage-taker at the grocery, Coulibaly, had “close ties” to the Kouachi
brothers and were demanding that the French police let them leave the
airport-area warehouse safely or he would his hostages at the grocery.
Two
schools in the huge area cordoned off around the kosher market were
ordered on lockdown and anxious parents flocked to the police lines in
futile efforts to get their children out of the embattled area.
"I'm
trying to get my boy out of school," one woman from Senegal, Binta Gay,
told an officer manning the boundary as she tried to reach her
5-year-old son. The policeman prevented her from crossing into the
sealed area along Cours de Vincennes.
"I heard a shot ring out and
then the police arrived immediately on the scene," said Eric
Dadone-Vaillant, who lives in the neighborhood near the grocery store.
"I saw a man down on the ground."
Dadone-Vaillant, interviewed by
phone, said he had found himself trapped in a cafe across the street
from the store as police swarmed the area.
As many as 20 officers crammed into the cafe and others crouched behind cars in the street, he said.
"The
police here have confirmed that it is a hostage situation and that we
would probably be here for a while," he added. They instructed customers
to move away from the windows. "I'm taking shelter with everyone,
behind the counter," he said.
Meanwhile, Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, confirmed that "an operation is under way at Dammartin-en-Goele."
Television
images broadcast worldwide showed police convoys racing along a
rain-slicked highway to the town, about 25 miles from the capital, near
continental Europe's busiest airport where officials closed the
northernmost runways because of their proximity to the scene.
Helicopters hovered overhead, silhouetted against cloudy afternoon
skies.
French television reported at least one hostage being held
there, although the Interior Ministry said that it could not confirm
that report.
French media reported that police have linked that
policewoman's shooting on Thursday with the massacre on Wednesday at the
offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine. The attack left 12
people dead and sparked the manhunt for the Kouachi brothers that has
riveted the attention of millions in France and worldwide.
Authorities
accuse the brothers of having carried out the assault at the magazine.
According to U.S. and French officials, Said Kouachi, 34, traveled to
Yemen in 2011 and had contacts with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,
the terrorist group’s affiliate in that country. Both men were on the
U.S. no-fly list.
The first glimpse of the two since the brutal
attack was Thursday at a gas station where they allegedly stole food and
gas before fleeing by car.
In Dammartin-en-Goele, authorities focused on an industrial area and told residents not to leave their homes.
"It's like a war zone here," one witness told BFM-TV.
Tilemakhos
Paraskevas, 26, who lives a few blocks away from the print shop, said
in an interview by telephone that the scene was like something out of a
"horror movie."
"There were helicopters in the air this morning. I
could see about 100 police in the streets and police trucks," he said.
"Law enforcement were knocking on all the doors and telling people not
to leave, to close the windows and turn off the lights."
"We
feel safe because of the law enforcement, but we are anxious,” he said.
"There is not a lot of information about what is happening."
"It's surprising, this is the first time something like this has happened in Dammartin," he added.
Within
hours, a group of up to 100 journalists had gathered on a muddy hill in
the middle of a roundabout near the highway leading into town. Police
blocked many from gaining further access, setting up two perimeter
fences and a checkpoint. Officials were questioning drivers who tried to
enter the town, letting only a limited number of vehicles through.
Schools
were placed on lockdown. A teacher in the besieged town said she was
huddled on the floor with her students, far from windows, and was trying
to stop the children from panicking by singing them rhymes.
Anxious parents gathered outside the school's gates for news about their children.
A
salesman at the print shop told France Info radio that when the two men
arrived at 8:30 a.m., he initially assumed they were officers with
police special operations and shook one of the suspect's hands. He said
the man was dressed in black combat gear and heavily armed.
“Go,
we don’t kill civilians," the gunman said, according to the witness, who
gave his name only as Didier. “I thought it was strange,” he said.
“As
I left I didn’t know what it was, it wasn’t normal. I did not know what
was going on. Was it a hostage taking or a burglary?"
A
woman identified as Irene, 82, who lives near the printing company,
told the French newspaper Liberation: "I’m scared, I’m really scared. My
blinds are open but I don’t dare go near the window to shut them. All
my children are calling me because they are scared for me."
French President Francois Hollande appeared at a news conference during which he tried to ease the fears of a nation on edge.
France "will be able to come through all these trials. I trust you and I trust our country," he said.
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