Charlie Hebdo: officials establish link between gunmen in both attacks — as it happened

Two separate police raids in Paris and Dammartin-en-Goële killed the Charlie Hebdo gunmen and a third man, ending a three-day manhunt. Police found Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, wanted for murdering 12 people in Paris on Wednesday, and cornered them in a printworks office.

In an interview before he was killed, Cherif Kouachi claimed that he was sent by al-Qaida in Yemen, as a defender of the prophet. In a separate interview, Coulibaly said that his attack had been ‘synchronized’ with the Kouachis’ Charlie Hebdo attack.

The Paris prosecutor revealed new details of both sieges, stating that Coulibaly, his girlfriend and the Kouachi brothers had spoken on the phone more than 500 times.

French special forces stormed the Dammartin-en-Goële printworks and a kosher supermarket in Vincennes, Paris, trading fire with the gunmen and throwing flashbang grenades after standoffs that lasted for hours. One hostage escaped unharmed in Dammartin-en-Goële.

Four hostages were killed and four wounded in the supermarket in Paris, where Amedy Coulibaly held civilians captive. Authorities believe Coulibaly and an accomplice killed a policewoman Thursday in southern Paris. They named the suspect as Hayat Boumeddienne, describing her as “armed and dangerous” and at large.

French president Francois Hollande addressed the nation from the Elysée, congratulating police and saying the nation must not give in to such a “terrifying antisemitic attack” like the one on the grocery store. “We are a free nation that does not give in,” he said. “We carry an ideal that is greater than us.”

The French gendarmerie (GIGN) have released footage of the raid on Dammartin-en-Goële:

Le Monde has published a series of photos taken by Amedy Coulibaly and his girlfriend in 2010, while they were visiting Islamic radical Djamel Beghal, who Le Monde has called Cherif Kouachi’s mentor. The photographs show Boumedienne, wearing a niqab and holding a crossbow.

Speaking at a conference, prosecutor François Molins reveals new details on both sieges:

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General:

• Hayat Boumedienne, Amedy Coulibaly’s girlfriend and accomplice, is still at large;
  
• Coulibaly and his girlfriend Hayat Boumedienne spoke more than 500 times to the Kouachi brothers over the phone;
• Five people remain in detention, including the wife of one of the Kouachi brothers;
• One of Wednesday’s wounded is still in critical condition.

Vincennes:

• ‘Likely’ that four of the hostages were killed when the gunman entered the Kosher market, before police staged their assault;
  
• Police identified Coulibaly’s DNA from a cloth found near the scene of the policewoman’s in Montrouge, leading to his identification within two hours.

Dammartin-en-Goële:

• An employee at the printing works where the Kouachi brothers were, was hiding on the second floor, underneath the sink, but the brothers were not aware of his presence;
• in addition to the AK47s, the Kouachis had one RPG inside the Dammartin-en-Goële printworks, ready to launch
  

The French government has tweeted about Sunday’s rally that they are calling The Republican March. The poster says: “All United” with the hashtag France is Charlie, beneath it:

French channel BFM TV has posted an edited clip of the two separate conversations their staff had with Cherif Kouachi (previously here) and Amedy Coulibaly today. BFM said they waited until the end of siege operations to air the footage.

In the clip, an anchor explains that a BFM reporter called the print works office where Kouachi was holed up, and Kouachi picked up. The 10am call was recorded, with Kouachi aware that he was speaking to a journalist and that he was to answer questions.

In the clip, Kouachi speaks in a very calm voice saying:

We just want to say that we are the defenders of the prophet, and that I, Cherif Kouachi, was sent by al-Qaida in Yemen. And that I went there and that it was Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki who financed me”, adding that the visit took place before Awlaki was killed.

BFM said that after 3pm, they got a call from Amedy Coulibaly, who wanted to be in contact with the police. He spoke with a BFM editor:

BFM: Are you in touch with the two brothers who conducted the operation at Charlie Hebdo?

Coulibaly: Yes. We synchronized our operations.

BFM: Are you still in touch with them? Have you recently spoken with them by phone?

Coulibaly: No.

BFM: How were you synchronized with the Kouachis? Are there further attacks planned?

Coulibaly: No, we only synchronized to kick-start things: so when they started Charlie Hebdo, I started on the police officers.

He also added that at the time, he was standing there with four dead and 16 people including children.

He finally that he committed these acts to defend “oppressed Muslims” notably in Palestine, and targeted the Kosher grocery store because he was targeting jews.

You can listen to the full interview with Cherif Kouachi here, in which he claims they don’t kill civilians, not counting journalists among those.

“We are defenders of the prophet. ... We don’t kill women, we’re not like you. ... We have codes of honour code.” Prompted by the reporter, Kouachi says: “We avenged” the prophet.

Meanwhile, a video released which some experts have said was released by an official AQAP outlet, has praised the attacks.

Meanwhile, fears are mounting that anti-Islamic sentiments will intensify across Europe – namely, Germany, Italy and Switzerland – in the wake of the Paris attacks, write Angelique Chrisafis, Kate Connolly and Stephanie KirchGaessner:

In the light of the growing Pegida movement – a grouping of disillusioned citizens, neo-Nazis and football hooligans who oppose Muslim immigration and have been backed by the anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) – the debate in Germany since the attacks in the French capital has been particularly nervous.

Such organisations, just like other populist and anti-immigrant parties gaining support in the polls across Europe, have been quick to make political capital from the attacks, citing them as proof that all their fears about Islamism were true.

“This bloodbath proves that those who laughed at or ignored the fears of so many people about a looming danger of Islamism were wrong,” said Alexander Gauland, a regional leader of AfD, which has its roots in the euro crisis and is currently riding at 25% in nationwide polls, on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. “This gives new weight to Pegida demands.”

Read the story in full here.

The role, if any, that al-Qaida has played in the Paris attacks has not been confirmed, but members of AQAP have said that their group in Yemen “directed the attack on the French magazine,” according to the Associated Press.

Separately, a source within al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula ‘who demanded anonymity’ has sent The Intercept a message praising the attacks, saying: “So France, are you ready for more attacks?”

The source, who demanded anonymity because the group has not yet released an official statement, also told The Intercept that two images in the latest issue of its publication, Inspire, published in December, contained a clue foreshadowing the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

Earlier today, a Yemeni official told Reuters the older brother in the Charlie Hebdo attack Said Kouachi had traveled to Yemen in 2011 and met with Anwar al-Awlaki. “We do not have confirmed information that he was trained by al-Qaida but what was confirmed was that he has met with Awlaki in Shabwah,” the Yemeni official told Reuters.

The Guardian’s Jason Burke reports that “American officials claimed that both of the suspects had been on a US terrorist watch list “for years” and one had travelled to Yemen, possibly for training with a group linked to al-Qaida, four years ago.

Dramatic new footage has emerged of police firing into and storming the Vincennes supermarket has been posted to YouTube.

The video, shot from a nearby building, shows the metal guard-door slowing rising as police hover in a swarm around its edges, and then the officers firing shots into the clearly lit aisles lined with produce. A body is visible on the ground inside.

Then police throw a grenade into the building, and after an explosion a hostage runs through the doors holding a coat over his head. The police move inside in a cluster of shields and close formation, and more hostages come racing out between them. At one point the camera pans to watch two men dragging a third person clear of the scene, as that person weakly pushes themselves along the sidewalk with them.

Potential viewers should be warned that the video is graphic and bodies of the dead and wounded are clearly visible.

Two dramatic police raids on separately besieged buildings killed the Charlie Hebdo gunmen and a third suspect, ending a three-day manhunt. Police found Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, wanted for murdering 12 people in Paris on Wednesday, and cornered them in a printworks office in Dammartin-en-Goële, a town near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

French special forces stormed both the Dammartin-en-Goële printworks and a kosher supermarket in Vincennes, Paris, trading fire with the gunmen and throwing flashbang grenades after standoffs that lasted for hours. One hostage escaped unharmed in Dammartin-en-Goële, and police managed to free more than a dozen from the grocery.

Four hostages were killed and four wounded in the supermarket in Paris, where Amedy Coulibaly held civilians captive and demanded police allow the Kouachi brothers go free. Authorities believe Coulibaly and an accomplice killed a policewoman Thursday in southern Paris.

French president Francois Hollande addressed the nation from the Elysée, congratulating police and saying the nation must not give in to such a “terrifying antisemitic attack” like the one on the grocery. “We are a free nation that does not give in,” he said. “We carry an ideal that is greater than us.”

World leaders pledged support for France, many of whom will join Hollande at a rally in Paris on Sunday. British prime minister David Cameron, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and EU president Donald Tusk all said they would accept Hollande’s invitation. US president Barack Obama said Paris’ spirit of freedom “will endure forever, long after the scourge of terrorism is banished from this world.”

The US State Department is reviewing security for operations in France but continues otherwise as normal, McClatchey’s Hannah Allam writes.