Tag Archives: Terrorism

Double Hostage Situation Erupts in France

Paris, France is under siege again as police confront two dangerous hostage situations. One involving the two suspects from Wednesday’s Charlie Hebdo attack and another at a kosher grocery store.

Police converged on the Charlie Hebdo suspects in a town northeast of Paris Friday morning. The New York Times reports that they barricaded themselves inside a printing business with at least one hostage.

Hours later, another hostage situation broke out at a kosher market located in Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris. The police have identified this suspect as Amedy Coulibaly who is suspected of murdering a female police officer on Thursday.

Police report that Coulibaly is an associate of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist suspects.

CNN: Charlie Hebdo attack: 2 intense standoffs in France

Two intense standoffs with gunmen were underway in and around Paris early Friday afternoon — one involving the two brothers wanted in the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the other a hostage situation at a kosher grocery store.

It was not immediately known if or how the two situations were related, but both underscored France’s days-long nightmare and anti-terrorism fight.

The latest unfolded near Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris, where the city prosecutor’s office reported a shooting and hostage situation early Friday afternoon. Police anti-terror units raced to the scene, while ambulances blared as they moved away from it.

Source: CNN – CNN: Charlie Hebdo attack: 2 intense standoffs in France

BBC News: Charlie Hebdo hunt: Double hostage crisis in France

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

Seven Arrested In Paris Terror Attack; Attackers Still At Large

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 Attack French Newspaper; 12 Dead

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.

Gunmen Attack French Satirical Magazine

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.

Hamas Mastermind Behind Kidnappings Sentenced To Life

A military court in Judea sentenced the mastermind of the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers to three life sentences.

Hussam Kawasameh was convicted last week for the planning and financing of the terrorist action.  He also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hamas for his work in gathering weapons.  He was also the one who hid the bodies and destroyed the evidence.

Prosecutors for the IDF said that Kawasameh did not see the boys as human beings and killed them simply because they were Jews.

The father of one of the victims said that his son was a good student who helped his siblings.  Avraham Fraenkel said that his son Naftali wasn’t just murdered…but that he was used as an unwilling tool for terror as Kawasameh hid his body for 18 days.

Kawasameh did not speak at the hearing.

Suicide Bomber Attacks Nigerian Church

The latest terror attack by Islamic extremists in Nigeria happened Thursday morning in the city of Gombe.

Local officials say a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the ECWA church.

“There was an explosion outside the ECWA church this morning. A suicide bomber who was restrained from getting into the church blew himself up,” Abubakar Yakubu, the head of the Nigeria Red Cross in Gombe, told the Christian Post. “Luckily no one was killed but some people were mildly injured.”

Witnesses say that the bomber arrived on a motorcycle and was furious when he was not permitted to drive past a security checkpoint that had been established by church members.  The church had built the barricade as a defense against Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.

The bomber had explosives strapped to his body that detonated while he was yelling at church members who had blocked his way.

The attack was the second bombing in Gombe on Thursday.  A female bomber was blown up outside a military barracks when a soldier shot the explosives strapped to her body.

ISIS Executes Almost 1,900 In Six Months

A British group that has been monitoring the violence connected to the Syrian civil war says they have proof the terrorists leading ISIS ordered almost 1,900 executions during a six-month period that ended December 27th.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that since the group declared their “caliphate” in Syria the terror group has killed at least 1,175 people in summary executions.

The group admits that the number could be much higher because they have reports of thousands missing including over 1,000 men from a single tribe.

The data includes deaths in the provinces of Deir Ezzor, al- Raqqa, al- Hasakah, Aleppo, Homs and Hama.

U.S. officials say the continued airstrikes against ISIS have weakened the group and has demoralized the group’s forces.  The terrorists recently lost a town in the northern part of Iraq to fighters from the Kurds.

Father Gives Daughter To Boko Haram

A 13-year-old girl who escaped the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram says her father sold her into slavery with the group.

The girl, whose identity is being withheld by authorities, said that she was being ordered to become a suicide bomber.  The information from the girl coincides with a rise in terrorist attacks by young girls and women wearing bomb vests.  Officials are concerned that the terrorists are forcing captive women to commit attacks.

The girl said her captors told her the only way to get into paradise would be to let them use her as a homicide bomber.

“When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it,” she said.  She eventually allowed them to strap a bomb vest on her after she noticed they were burying alive members of the group and girls who would not follow through with terror attacks.

“I was afraid to be buried alive,” she told reporters.

The girl was initially arrested at a hospital after she arrived with a leg wound.  She told a taxi driver to take her a hospital and she left the bomb vest in the back seat of the taxi.  Officials say they will keep her in protective custody while the investigation continues.

She says her father is now a full member of Boko Haram.