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Charlie Hebdo Suspects Dead in Raid; Hostage Taker in Paris Is Also Killed Charlie Hebdo Suspects Dead in Raid; Hostage Taker in Paris Is Also Killed
(about 5 hours later)
PARIS — The French police on Friday killed the two brothers suspected of massacring 12 people at a Paris newspaper on Wednesday and freed a hostage they had been holding unharmed, the authorities said. The police also killed another hostage-taker, described as an associate of the brothers, in a separate assault on a kosher supermarket in Paris. PARIS — A tense, dramatic day of spiraling crises that had paralyzed parts of Paris and its suburbs, drawn an army of law enforcement officers and shaken the French government ended in bloodshed on Friday, as the police conducted nearly simultaneous raids in response to two hostage situations that had extended a wave of terror.
Three hostages were killed and five injured at the market, although it was not immediately clear how many of those may have been shot in the final assault. Five hostages were reported to have been freed unharmed, a senior French police official said. The operations against two suspected militants in a printing factory north of Paris, and against a third man who had seized hostages at a kosher market in the eastern part of the city, began with explosions, the sound of gunfire, and then quiet.
The assault against the two brothers, suspects in the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, began shortly after 5 p.m. Explosions and gunfire were heard at a printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goële, outside of Paris, where the gunmen were holding a single hostage. The militants in the factory, two brothers, had set off the terror on Wednesday by spraying the offices of a satirical newspaper with gunfire, massacring 12 people. An associate was suspected of assassinating a police officer on Thursday before taking hostages at the kosher market on Friday. All three were killed in the police operations.
Rocco Contento, spokesman for the Unité S.G.P. police union in Paris, said the assault had unfolded rapidly and confirmed that the brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, were dead. A hostage who had been held by the two brothers was freed unharmed, the authorities said.
“The operation in Dammartin is finished,” Mr. Contento said. “The two suspects have been killed and the hostage has been freed. The special counterterrorism forces located where the terrorists are and broke down the door. They took them by surprise. It lasted a matter of minutes.” But four hostages were killed and five injured at the supermarket, although it was not immediately clear how many of those might have been shot in the final assault. Five hostages were reported to have been freed unharmed, a senior French police official said.
Moments later, gunfire erupted at a kosher supermarket on the eastern end of Paris where the alleged associate of the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly, was also holding hostages. One woman was seen running from the market as heavily armed police officers moved in. Addressing the nation Friday night, President François Hollande saluted the special police forces that had conducted the operations. He called for vigilance and unity against “fanatics.”
Mr. Coulibaly, who police say gunned down a female police officer in Montrouge, a suburb south of Paris on Thursday, had threatened to kill his hostages if the Kouachi brothers were attacked. “It is our best weapon,” he said. “We can fight against anything that could divide us.”
The twin episodes threw the capital and its beleaguered government into a new crisis. President François Hollande interrupted a meeting with local officials to monitor efforts to capture the two suspects in the newspaper killings. When word of the second hostage-taking came, he sent his interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, to the scene, near Porte de Vincennes. Mr. Hollande also labeled the attack at the kosher supermarket a horrific “anti-Semitic act.”
In a measure of the jitters pervading the city, the police ordered shopkeepers on Rue des Rosiers, a street with many Jewish-owned businesses, to close as a precaution. “Following this ordeal, I can assure you: We will emerge even stronger,” he said.
Early on Friday, hundreds of French security forces converged on the printing plant, in an industrial park near Charles de Gaulle Airport. The suspects told negotiators they intended to “die as martyrs,” a police official said. Though the immediate crises had ended, France remained deeply traumatized, and a period of mourning began for the 17 victims who had been swept up in the violence. The attack on the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, has already been called “France’s September 11” by Le Monde.
As that drama was playing out about 30 miles northeast of Paris, the police responded in force to the shooting and hostage-taking at the kosher market. The attack on Wednesday set off soul-searching about the integration of Muslims in France’s impoverished immigrant suburbs, the radicalization of disenfranchised young people on society’s margins, and the failure of the French security apparatus to fend off the assault by the suspects, who had been known to the police for years and had been closely monitored by the intelligence services.
The police and news reports said that Mr. Coulibaly was believed to have joined the same jihadist group as the Kouachi brothers, and that a terrorism investigation had been opened. They issued a photograph of Mr. Coulibaly and appealed for witnesses to come forward. They also published a photograph of a woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who they said was also implicated in the Montrouge attack. They said both suspects were armed and dangerous. One of the two brothers, Saïd Kouachi, 34, had traveled to Yemen in 2011 and received terrorist training from Al Qaeda’s affiliate there before returning to France, according to American officials. His younger brother Chérif Kouachi, a sometime pizza delivery man and fishmonger, had been arrested in France in 2005 as he prepared to leave for Syria, the first leg of a trip he had hoped would take him to Iraq, and convicted three years later.
During the attack on the newspaper, the assailants identified themselves as being part of Al Qaeda and shouted, “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.” Their blatant embrace of Islam during an act of violence has been seized on by those who have been warning about a gulf between Islam and the values of the West.
The events are already resonating in French politics and could embolden the ascendant far-right National Front, which has railed against the failure of immigrants, and Muslims in particular, to integrate into French society.
They could further damage the standing of Mr. Hollande, one of the most unpopular presidents in recent French history, who was already confronting a struggling economy and questions about his leadership.
The attacks have also spawned fears among Muslims. In the hours after the newspaper was targeted, two Muslim places of worship were shot at, and there was an explosion at a kebab shop in eastern France. No one was hurt in those assaults.
The Kouachi brothers had been on the run since the attack on Charlie Hebdo but were tracked to the printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goële, 25 miles north of Paris, early Friday. They were armed and holding a single hostage.
After hours of unsuccessful negotiations, during which the brothers told the authorities that they were ready to die as martyrs, the police began the simultaneous raids at about 5 p.m.
Rocco Contento, a spokesman for the Unité S.G.P. police union in Paris, who confirmed that the brothers were dead, said the raids had unfolded rapidly.
“The operation in Dammartin is finished,” Mr. Contento said. “The two suspects have been killed, and the hostage has been freed. The special counterterrorism forces located where the terrorists are and broke down the door. They took them by surprise. It lasted a matter of minutes.”
While the brothers were holding the printing plant, a man said to be an associate, Amedy Coulibaly, seized hostages at Hyper Cacher, a kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes.
Mr. Coulibaly, who the police said had gunned down a female police officer in Montrouge, a suburb south of Paris, on Thursday, threatened to kill his hostages if the police attacked the Kouachi brothers.
In a measure of the jitters pervading the city during the daylong siege, the police ordered shopkeepers on Rue des Rosiers, a street with many Jewish-owned businesses, to close as a precaution.
Earlier in the day, the police said that Mr. Coulibaly was believed to be part of the same jihadist network as the Kouachi brothers, and that a terrorism investigation had been opened. While Mr. Coulibaly held the hostages, they issued a photograph of him and appealed for witnesses to come forward.
They also published a photograph of a woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who they said was also linked to the supermarket attack; earlier, they had also linked her to the Montrouge attack. They said she and Mr. Coulibaly were both armed and dangerous.
Before the raid on the printing plant, Mohamed Douhane, a senior police officer who was following the negotiations with the Kouachis, said that the police were in contact with the two suspects and that they hoped to resolve the standoff peacefully.Before the raid on the printing plant, Mohamed Douhane, a senior police officer who was following the negotiations with the Kouachis, said that the police were in contact with the two suspects and that they hoped to resolve the standoff peacefully.
“We have established communication with the Kouachi brothers,” he said. “They said they wanted to die as martyrs. They are behaving like two determined terrorists who are certainly physically exhausted, but who want to escape with one last big show of force and heroic resistance. They feel trapped and know that their last hours have come.”“We have established communication with the Kouachi brothers,” he said. “They said they wanted to die as martyrs. They are behaving like two determined terrorists who are certainly physically exhausted, but who want to escape with one last big show of force and heroic resistance. They feel trapped and know that their last hours have come.”
The police said the brothers had been located at the printing warehouse by helicopters equipped with heat sensors. Shortly afterward, residents saw security forces drop down on ropes from helicopters hovering over the area.The police said the brothers had been located at the printing warehouse by helicopters equipped with heat sensors. Shortly afterward, residents saw security forces drop down on ropes from helicopters hovering over the area.
Aircraft had been advised to avoid certain runways at the airport as a precaution. Residents of Dammartin-en-Goële were told to stay indoors. Students were locked down in their schools and were being kept away from windows and doors. Shortly after noon, the town announced that students at schools nearest the area of the operations were being evacuated by the police and taken to another school to be picked up by their parents. Helicopters were circling the town as a cold drizzle fell. Aircraft had been advised to avoid certain runways at the airport as a precaution. Residents of Dammartin-en-Goële were told to stay indoors. Students were locked down in their schools and were being kept away from windows and doors. Shortly after noon, town officials announced that students at schools closest to the area of the operations were being evacuated by the police and taken to another school to be picked up by their parents. Helicopters were circling the town as a cold drizzle fell.
Mr. Hollande, after meeting with local officials at the Interior Ministry, said, “France is going through a trying time,” and called this week’s attack “the worst of the past 50 years.” Mr. Hollande, after meeting with local officials at the Interior Ministry in the early hours of the siege, said, “France is going through a trying time,” and called this week’s attack “the worst of the past 50 years.”
Looking tense but trying to sound resolute as the effort to capture the suspects was unfolding, the president said, “France is also shocked, considering that the perpetrators of these acts have not yet been arrested, and I am speaking before you as operations are ongoing.”
Saïd Kouachi, 34, traveled to Yemen in 2011 and received terrorist training from Al Qaeda’s affiliate there before returning to France, according to American officials. His younger brother Chérif, 32, who has worked as a pizza deliveryman and a fishmonger, had been detained and later arrested in 2008 for his involvement in a Paris terrorist cell that had been recruiting French citizens to fight in Iraq.