Police have surrounded a supermarket in Paris, as the BBC’s Stephen Sackur reports.
A gunman has seized hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris as police in northern France have cornered the two Charlie Hebdo massacre suspects.
A police officer told the BBC that two people were killed after a gunman believed to be the killer of a policewoman in Montrouge entered the supermarket near Porte de Vincennes.
Source: BBC News – BBC News: Charlie Hebdo hunt: Double hostage crisis in France
French authorities have arrested seven people in connection with the terrorist attack on a French satirical newspaper Wednesday.
The two gunman, however, are still at large.
Two brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi are believed to be the gunman who shot and killed 12 people inside the French publication Charlie Hebdo. Cherif has a criminal record of serving 18 months in prison for criminal association with a terrorist organization in 2005. He was part of an Islamist cell that called for French citizens to go to Iraq to fight Americans.
The man who drove the getaway car surrendered to authorities Wednesday night. Hamyd Mourad, 18, is reportedly working with authorities to identify anyone who helped in the planning of the attack.
Authorities say that seven people connected to the brothers are under arrest. They have not said what charges will be brought against them.
French president Francois Hollande has called for a national day of mourning.
“Nothing can divide us, nothing should separate us,” Hollande said in a statement. “Freedom will always be stronger than barbarity. France has always known how to defeat its enemies when it has known how to defend its values. Let us be united and we shall triumph.”
Terrorists attacked a French newspaper on Wednesday, leaving 12 people dead and at least 4 others in critical condition in Paris hospitals.
Officials say that police officers were killed along with members of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper staff as the gunmen fled the scene of the attack.
The newspaper had been the subject of hatred from Muslims because of cartoons that mocked Islam and the prophet Mohammed. The gunman who attacked the newspaper today were shouting “allahu akbar” and also “we have avenged the prophet.”
“We heard shouting in the street,” Benoît Bringer, who works at a press agency on the same floor as the magazine’s offices, told France Info radio. “We saw hooded men carrying Kalashnikovs entering the building. We called the police. After a few minutes we heard heavy firing – a lot of firing, a hell of a lot. We went upstairs to take shelter on the roof. Then after about 10 minutes we saw two armed men come out onto the street. There was more shouting, more firing.”
“Three policemen had arrived on bikes but had to leave because the men were armed, obviously … Then the attackers took off in a car.”
A woman told L’Humanite newspaper that she had been forced at gunpoint to let the terrorists in the building:
“I had gone to pick up my daughter from daycare. Arriving at the door of the newspaper building, two hooded and armed men brutally threatened us. They wanted to enter, go up. I typed the code. They shot Wolinski, Cabu … it lasted five minutes … I had taken refuge under a desk … They spoke French perfectly … claiming to be Al-Qaeda.”
President Obama condemned the attack.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this terrorist attack and the people of France at this difficult time,” the statement reads. “France is America’s oldest ally, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world. Time and again, the French people have stood up for the universal values that generations of our people have defended. France, and the great city of Paris where this outrageous attack took place, offer the world a timeless example that will endure well beyond the hateful vision of these killers. We are in touch with French officials and I have directed my Administration to provide any assistance needed to help bring these terrorists to justice.”
Thousands of police and French troops are conducting a manhunt for the three terrorists who carried out the attack.
Twelve people are confirmed dead and several more are injured after three gunmen stormed the Paris office of a French satirical magazine known as Charlie Hebdo.
Witnesses reported seeing the masked gunmen enter the main entrance and open fire. Afterward, the gunmen took to the streets, killing police officers, and finally getting away in a black car.
French officials have labeled the attack as “an act of terrorism” and are raising the terror threat level. Security has been increased for media organizations, large stores, and places of worship.
“We will find the people who did this,” French President Francois Hollande stated. “France is today shocked by this terrorist attack.”
President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have shown their support for France by offering to provide assistance in catching the terrorists.
According to law enforcement, two police officers and four of the publication’s cartoonists are among the dead.
A Muslim man attempted to murder a French police officer Friday while yelling “Allahu Akbar.”
The London Daily Telegraph said the man has been arrested for theft after he snatched a woman’s purse. He asked his jailers for a glass of water and when the officer opened the prisoner’s cell, the man lunged at the officer and tried to strangle him.
“The doctor who treated him (the officer) said that just a few seconds more and it would have been too late,” Michael Philippart of the SGP FO police union told the publication L’Est Républicain.
The attack is not the only attack on French police by Muslims in the last few weeks.
In Joue-les-Tours, Bertrand Nzohabonayo walked into a police station with a knife and shouted “Allahu Akbar” while he slashed at police.
“He was banging on the fittings [of the door], so the officers opened [the door] to see what he was doing, and he immediately threw himself at my colleagues, stabbing one in the hand, and attacking the second on the neck and face,” Christophe Crepin told France 2 TV.
The attacker said he was doing it for the “children of Palestine.”
France is explaining the controversial decision to vote in favor of Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Security Council.
France’s ambassador to Israel said his nation was backing the resolution because they wanted to encourage Israel and the Palestinians to resume their peace negotiations.
Ambassador Patrick Maisonnave had been summoned to the Israel Foreign Ministry after the vote because of Israel’s “deep disappointment” with the actions of the French government. Israel had previously said they would reject any resolution from the U.N. that put a timetable on the statehood for Palestine.
France had objected to the wording of the resolution and had tried to push a more moderately worded document that was rejected before the vote on the Palestinian measure.
The measure failed in the Security Council by one vote. Palestine’s response was to try and obtain statehood at the International Criminal Court so they could continue their campaign against Israel.
A day after the Islamic terrorist group ISIS beheaded a French national, French warplanes struck multiple targets inside Iraq.
France’s air force made multiple bombing raids on oil fields that were under the control of ISIS in an attempt to keep the terrorists from using the oil to fund their activities. The strikes were part of a multinational coordinated assault.
The strikes by France were the country’s first since the start of the assault on ISIS.
The strikes took place as President Obama addressed the United Nations about the ISIS threat.
“The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force, so the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama said.
Britain is the next country believed to be joining the airstrikes. Prime Minister David Cameron will be seeking authorization from parliament on Friday.
Islamic State issued a call to its members in the United States, France and other countries that are connected to the coalition against ISIS to commit attacks.
The call from Islamic State included direct attacks on world leaders, including President Obama.
“O mule of the Jews, you claimed today that America would not be drawn into a war on the ground. No, it will be drawn and dragged … to its death, grave and destruction,” ISIS leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in the video.
ISIS leadership also dismissed the pending airstrikes from coalition countries and said they will have no impact on their reign of terror.
“It will be broken and defeated, just as all your previous campaigns were broken and defeated,” Adnani said.
A new study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics shows that the number of foreigners traveling to Switzerland to kill themselves has doubled in a four year period.
According to the study, 172 foreigners traveled to the country to end their lives in 2012 compared to 2009’s total of 86. Citizens of Germany and Great Britain make up the majority, over two-thirds of the total.
Switzerland has very liberal assisted suicide laws. The only requirement is that whoever assists in the death has no direct interest in the ending of the life, such as being in the victim’s will.
The rise of foreigners entering the country to end their lives raised enough concern among residents that in 2011 a ban on the practice was placed on the ballot but voted down.
People from 31 nations came to Switzerland to die. The median age of the victims was 69.
France and Italy saw large rises in the number of citizens who traveled to Switzerland to die.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Italy are joining together in an attempt to quell the rampant anti-Semitism raging in their countries.
“Anti-Semitic rhetoric and hostility against Jews, attacks on people of Jewish belief and synagogues have no place in our societies,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, France’s Laurent Fabius and Italy’s Federica Mogherini said in a joint statement.
The group made a point to say their citizens had freedom of speech and freedom to assemble but that those rights do not permit them to harass Jewish citizens or take actions that are clearly hostile to any group of citizens.
Protesters in Germany have been particularly hostile toward Jews, chanting slogans during their protests calling for Jews to be gassed.
Authorities in Berlin are taking steps to crack down on chants like that and other anti-Semitic slogans. They have threatened groups with arrest should they continue to harass Jewish residents.
