Riot police patrol in Paris as part of the highest level of security plan. PHOTO: AFP
Two brothers suspected of attacking the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were killed when police stormed their hideout on Friday while their hostage was freed, a police official said.
However, a police source said at least four other hostages had been killed at a separate siege at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris. The hostage-taker, who is believed to have had links to the same group as the brothers, had also been killed, the source added.
The two chief suspects in Wednesday’s attack died when security forces moved in on a print works in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where they had been holed up with their hostage. The print works at Dammartin-en-Goele, set in marsh and woodland, had been under siege since the gunmen abandoned a high-speed car chase and took refuge there early on Friday.
Security sources said the French-born brothers of Algerian origin had been under surveillance and had been placed on European and US ‘no-fly’ lists.
Charlie Hebdo had long courted controversy with satirical attacks on Islam as well as other religions.
Five dead in Paris supermarket
Five people were killed, including the gunman, and four were left critically wounded after a hostage drama in eastern Paris ended with a police assault on Friday.
Gunfire erupted as police stormed the Jewish store, where at least one armed assailant had seized hostages in Porte de Vincennes on the edge of the city. It was not immediately clear if the casualties occurred during the assault or earlier in the siege, nor whether a second hostage-taker was among the dead.
UN chief voices relief
UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed relief on Friday following reports that the gunmen who stormed the Charlie Hebdo weekly had been killed and offered words of support to France. “I’m relieved that these terrorists have been killed by the authorities of the French government,” Ban said after signing a book of condolences at the French mission to the United Nations.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 10th, 2015.
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