Charlie Hebdo Militant Islamist shooting of French satire newspaper

Charlie Hebdo Militant Islamist shooting of French satire newspaper ---
tags: Mideast or Muslim Suspect, team attack, RPG rocket launcher, AK-47 assault rifle, commando gear, Yemen training visit, Anwar al-Awlaki involved, Al Qaeda, government classified as terrorist act, connected incidents, attack police

combined with supermarket hostage: 19 killed, 3 suspects killed; 14 killed 2 gunmen killed  Charlie Hebdo Militant Islamist shooting of French satire newspaper January 7, 2014 Two masked gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles, a shotgun, and an RPG launcher entered the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris which had been targeted by militant Islamists angry about its depictions of  Muhammad. The attack resulted in the deaths of 12 people, On 9 January, the assailants were cornered at an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goële, and they were connected to another shooting of a policewoman in Montrouge by a fourth suspect who was apparently in communication and also taking hostages at a jewish supermarket near Porte de Vincennes. Police raids were simultaneously conducted in Dammartin and at Porte de Vincennes, with all assailants killed, and some hostages injured or killed. The attacks are the deadliest act of terrorism in France since the 1961 Vitry-Le-François train bombing

Unusual in that two teams of two were involved, they were armed with rocket propelled grenades in addition to AK-47 rifles

*Conspiracy theories

Anti-Semitic Conspiracies Predictably Surface After Paris AttacksUpdate –Jan­u­ary, 15, 2015: For more exam­ples, see also: Anti-Semitic Con­spir­a­cies Con­tinue In After­math Of Paris Attacks

In the after­math of the ter­ror attack in Paris at the Char­lie Hebdo office, con­spir­acy the­o­ries blam­ing Jews and Israel for the attack imme­di­ately sur­faced in the U.S and abroad.

The sub­se­quent hostage sit­u­a­tion at a Kosher super­mar­ket in Paris, where at least four hostages were killed, will undoubt­edly feed into the con­spir­acy the­o­ries as they con­tinue to spread, as they often do after a ter­ri­ble tragedy.

In the U.S., anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­rists, who never miss an oppor­tu­nity to exploit tragedies to pro­mote their anti-Jewish hatred, and two anti-Israel activists blamed Jews or Israel for the attacks:

Mark Glenn, a vir­u­lently anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­rist, wrote on his blog The Ugly Truth that “The mas­sacre in Paris as [sic] yet another False Flag event aimed at re-igniting and re-invigorating Judea’s declared war against Islam.” The state­ment is accom­pa­nied by an image of Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu with the cap­tion “…It will gen­er­ate imme­di­ate sym­pa­thy for Israel.”
On Vet­er­ans Today, a U.S.-based web­site that presents anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­ries as news, Gilad Atz­mon, an Israeli-born anti-Semite based in Lon­don, claimed that France some­how deserved these attacks due to actions he claims were pushed for by “the Jew­ish lobby group CRIF.” He also chas­tises France for “fol­low­ing the whims of The Lobby.” He posited, “It is quite prob­a­bly that this was another false flag oper­a­tion. Who could be behind it? Use your imagination…”

Kevin Bar­rett, an anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­rist and fre­quent con­trib­u­tor to Iran’s Eng­lish lan­guage pro­pa­ganda news net­work, Press TV, wrote an arti­cle in Vet­er­ans Today titled “Paris ‘Char­lie Hebdo Attack’: Another Zion­ist False Flag?” In the arti­cle Bar­rett describes the attack as Zion­ist “orches­trated” ret­ri­bu­tion for French for­eign pol­icy on Israel and the Pales­tini­ans. Bar­rett also implies that Israel is behind “Malaysian planes…falling out of the sky” as pun­ish­ment for Malaysian for­eign pol­icy on Israel, and that the 2011 attacks in Nor­way that killed 77 peo­ple were per­pe­trated by Israel against Norway’s Labor Party for its poli­cies on Israel.

Greta Berlin and Mary Hughes-Thompson, anti-Israel activists who co-founded the Free Gaza Move­ment (FGM), have also alleged Israel is behind the attack. Greta Berlin wrote on Face­book that “MOSSAD just hit the Paris offices of Char­lie Hebdo in a clumsy false flag designed to dam­age the accord between Pales­tine and France…Here’s hop­ing the French police will be able to tell a well exe­cuted hit by a well trained Israeli intel­li­gence ser­vice and not assume the Mus­lims would be likely to attack France when France is their freind [sic.] Israel did tell France there would be grave con­se­quences if they voted with Pales­tine. A four year old could see who is respon­si­ble for this ter­ri­ble attack.” Mary Hughes-Thompson posted on Twit­ter that “#Hebdo killings inde­fen­si­ble. Can’t help think­ing #JSIL Mossad false flag though….” JSIL is the acronym for “Jew­ish State in the Lev­ant,” a term being used by anti-Israel activists to equate Israel with ISIS.

Inter­na­tion­ally, such con­spir­acy the­o­ries have entered into more main­stream media and been pro­moted by var­i­ous individuals:

India: Mother Jones reported that Inter­na­tional Busi­ness Times India pub­lished an arti­cle that posited that the Mossad, Israel’s national intel­li­gence ser­vice, was to blame. “Although there is no way to ver­ify the claims that Mossad was involved, the back­drop in which the attack took place seems to indi­cate that they might be involved, many con­spir­acy the­o­rists have noted. Mossad is respon­si­ble for intel­li­gence col­lec­tion and has under­taken many covert oper­a­tions for Israel in Europe that aim to fur­ther their Jew­ish cause.” The arti­cle has since been replaced with an editor’s note stat­ing that the arti­cle alleg­ing this link “should never have been published.”
Tunisia: Tunisia Times posted an arti­cle on Jan­u­ary 9 on its web­site titled “Amer­i­can Resources: The Mossad is behind Char­lie Hebdo oper­a­tion in France” Accord­ing to the report, “Even­tu­ally, the Mossad hired Mus­lims from Ara­bic ori­gins to carry the attack to increase hos­til­ity towards Mus­lims worldwide.”
charlie-hebdo-al-dostor-egypt

Image from arti­cle in Egypt’s Al Dos­tor news­pa­per describ­ing the Mossad as car­ry­ing out the attack.
Egypt: Cairo-based daily news­pa­per, Al Dos­tor, pub­lished a report on its web­site yes­ter­day titled “Sur­prise… Accus­ing the Mossad of car­ry­ing out the oper­a­tion against the French news­pa­per Char­lie Hebdo.” Accord­ing to the news­pa­per, the Berlin-based Free Gaza move­ment accused the Mossad of exe­cut­ing the attack which tar­geted the head­quar­ters of the French satir­i­cal news­pa­per Char­lie Hebdo, and not any other ter­ror­ist group as it was reported.

Jor­dan: Rawafed News web­site pub­lished an arti­cle by Assad Al Azony on Jan­u­ary 8 titled” The tragedy of satir­i­cal Char­lie Hebdo… Search for Jews and the extreme French right wing [to be behind it]. Accord­ing to the arti­cle, “One must be cer­tain that Jews and the French extreme right wing exe­cuted this ter­ror­ist attack.”

Lebanon: Mid­dle East Panorama Media and News Agency pub­lished an arti­cle today on its web­site by Ahmed Al Shar­qawy titled “Char­lie Hebdo… Oh Arabs, be aware of the Zion­ist trap.” Al Shar­qawy claimed in his arti­cle that a pro-Palestinian Jew­ish friend who lives in France con­tacted him in the past warn­ing that the same news­pa­per is suf­fer­ing from a finan­cial cri­sis and that “Zion­ist Jews advised the news­pa­per to fab­ri­cate a bar­baric attack against the free­dom of expres­sion to increase its sales.”

Turkey: Coor­di­na­tor  of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood affil­i­ated orga­ni­za­tion Inter­na­tional Rabia Plat­form, Turk­ish jour­nal­ist Cihangir İşbilir, posted a com­ment on his Twit­ter account on Jan­u­ary 7, stat­ing “Alter­na­tive sce­nario: France angered Israel, because it would sup­port Pales­tine in the UN secu­rity Coun­cil. Mossad com­mit­ted the ter­ror­ist attack.

West Bank: Mazin Qum­siyeh, a con­spir­a­to­r­ial anti-Israel activist who has a his­tory of mak­ing anti-Semitic state­ments, sent an e-mail on Jan­u­ary 9 to his list­serv sug­gest­ing that the attacks in France may have been per­pe­trated by a state intel­li­gence ser­vice. He stated, “Whether this was yet another false flag oper­a­tion or by rogue ter­ror­ists not left alive to be ques­tioned, Zion­ists are milk­ing it to the best of their (very large) media abilities.”

Anti-Semites have pro­moted such absurd the­o­ries to explain events in Syria, the Boston Marathon bomb­ing, the Sandy Hook Mas­sacre, and the 9/11 ter­ror­ist attacks. In the Mid­dle East, there are those that claim that ISIS and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood have secret alliances with the Jews or that the Jews cre­ated such ter­ror­ist groups for nefar­i­ous purposes.

ADL;
JANUARY 15, 20150

Anti-Semitic Conspiracies Continue In Aftermath Of Paris Attacks

Con­spir­acy the­o­ries blam­ing Jews and Israel for the ter­ror attack at the Char­lie Hebdo office in Paris con­tinue to sur­face in the U.S. and abroad.

In addi­tion to pre­vi­ously reported exam­ples, recent instances of Amer­i­can anti-Semites exploit­ing the tragedy to pro­mote hatred for Jews include:

• Paul Craig Roberts, an anti-Semitic syn­di­cated colum­nist, wrote an arti­cle on his per­sonal web­site claim­ing that there are sus­pi­cions “that the French shoot­ings are a false flag oper­a­tion.” Roberts iden­ti­fied sev­eral rea­sons for this, includ­ing “to sti­fle the grow­ing Euro­pean sym­pa­thy for the Pales­tini­ans and to realign Europe with Israel.”

• On Jan­u­ary 14, in an arti­cle in the Nation of Islam’s The Final Call, Assis­tant Edi­tor Asha­hed Muham­mad cited a piece byKevin Bar­rett titled “Paris Char­lie Hebdo Attack: Another Zion­ist False Flag?” and Paul Craig Roberts to claim that events in France could have been a false flag operation.

• On Press TV, Iran’s English-language satel­lite news net­work, in a Jan­u­ary 13 arti­cle titled “Ana­lyst won­ders whether Cahrlie [sic] Hebdo mas­sacre was staged,” Bran­don Mar­tinezblamed “Zion­ists” for a num­ber of the world’s evils. For exam­ple, Mar­tinez wrote that Al-Qaeda and ISIS are “all out­growths of the same poi­so­nous American-Zionist impe­r­ial tree.”

• On Jan­u­ary 12, on Vet­er­ans Today, a U.S.-based web­site that presents anti-Semitic con­spir­acy the­o­ries as news, Senior Edi­tor Gor­don Duff pub­lished an arti­cle titled “Did Netanyahu Give France Their 9/11?” In the arti­cle, he describes the attacks as a “comic opera of care­lessly staged false flag ter­ror­ism” car­ried out by “the Mossad and the crim­i­nal banks, part of the pro-Israeli ISIS organization.”

Inter­na­tion­ally, sim­i­lar con­spir­acy the­o­ries have been pub­lished in some media out­lets and been pro­moted by var­i­ous individuals:

Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek blam­ing Mossad for the attacks

• Turkey: Accord­ing to a report from Anadolu News Agency cir­cu­lat­ing in the Turk­ish media, Ankara’s Mayor, Melih Gokcek accused Israel of being behind the Paris attacks. He made his state­ment dur­ing a con­fer­ence by the Jus­tice and Devel­op­ment Party (AK Party) on Jan­u­ary 13. He claimed Israel was annoyed with the lower house of the French Par­lia­ment for vot­ing for the recog­ni­tion of a Pales­tin­ian state and with France’s vote in favor of a United Nations Secu­rity Coun­cil (UNSC) res­o­lu­tion call­ing for the same recog­ni­tion. “Israel cer­tainly doesn’t want this sen­ti­ment to expand in Europe. That is why it is cer­tain that Mossad is behind these kinds of inci­dents. Mossad inflames Islam­o­pho­bia by caus­ing such inci­dents,” Gokcek said.

• Egypt: A for­eign affairs ana­lyst at Al Wafd daily news­pa­per was cited in a report by the paper on Jan­u­ary 12 as stat­ing: “The Israeli Mossad is behind the ter­ror­ist attack againstChar­lie Hebdo French news­pa­per.” He added, “The Mossad planned the oper­a­tion, and pro­vided the attack­ers with weapons, and most likely the plan­ning of the oper­a­tion was done in the same Jew­ish [gro­cery] store which the attack­ers went to later.”

• Egypt: Mohammed Tew­fik, a jour­nal­ist and for­mer mem­ber of the mil­i­tant al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, accused the Mossad of being involved in the Char­lie Hebdo attacks. His accu­sa­tions were included in a state­ment pub­lished by the Egypt-based Albawabh news web­site, on Jan­u­ary 12. Tew­fik stated, “The fast reac­tion by Israel to the attack, and Netanyahu’s trip to France, his request for France’s Jews to immi­grate to Israel, and his call to  estab­lish a new inter­na­tional coali­tion against Islamic ter­ror­ism, are likely [indi­ca­tions] of a Mossad involve­ment in this crime and an attempt to stick it to the Muslims.”

Anti-Semites have pro­moted such absurd the­o­ries to explain events in Syria, the Boston Marathon bomb­ing, the Sandy Hook Mas­sacre, and the 9/11 ter­ror­ist attacks. In the Mid­dle East, there are those that claim that ISIS and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood have secret alliances with the Jews or that the Jews cre­ated such ter­ror­ist groups for nefar­i­ous purposes.

*Reference

- Wikipedia

Charlie Hebdo shooting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location	10 Rue Nicolas-Appert, 11th arrondissement of Paris, France[1]
Coordinates	48.85925°N 2.37025°ECoordinates: 48.85925°N 2.37025°E
Date	7 January 2015 11:30 CET –9 January 2015 18:35 CET(UTC+01:00)
Target	Charlie Hebdo employees
Attack type	Mass shooting, hostage crisis, police raids
Weapons	AK-47s[2] Pump-action Shotgun[3] RPG[4][5][6][7]
Deaths	12 (Charlie Hebdo shooting) 1 (police officer in Montrouge shooting) 2 (suspects of hostage crisis at Dammartin-en-Goële) At least 4 (victims of hostage crisis at Porte de Vincennes) 1 (suspect of hostage crisis at Porte de Vincennes) Total: at least 20
Non-fatal injuries	at least 12
Perpetrators	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula[8][9]  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant[10] (suspected)
Assailants	Charlie Hebdo shooting: Saïd Kouachi, Chérif Kouachi Related shootings: Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, Amedy Coulibaly, Hayat Boumeddiene, and perhaps other suspects[11]

On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 CET (10:30 UTC), two masked gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles, a shotgun, and an RPG launcher entered the offices of theFrench satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The newspaper has attracted worldwide attention for its regular depictions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.^{[4][5][6][7][12][13]} The attack resulted in the deaths of 12 people, including the editor Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, eight other Charlie Hebdoemployees, and two National Police officers,^[14] while 11 others were wounded.^[15][16][17]

The gunmen entered the building and began shooting with automatic weapons, while shouting "Allahu Akbar", Arabic for "God is great".^[18] Up to 50 shots were fired during the attack.^[19]

Several people were detained by the police in connection with the attack, during the manhunt for the two main suspects.^[14] A third suspect was identified at first by the police and gave himself up.^[14] The assailants were described by police as "armed and dangerous", and the threat level in Île-de-France and Picardy was raised to its highest possible status.^[14] On 9 January, the assailants were identified by police at an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goële, where they had taken a hostage.^[20] The connection between the Charlie Hebdo shooting and another shooting in Montrouge by a fourth suspect was established. This gunman had also taken hostages near Porte de Vincennes.^[21] Police raids were simultaneously conducted in Dammartin and at Porte de Vincennes, with all assailants killed, and some hostages injured or killed.^[22] François Hollandeconfirmed that four people were killed in the siege in the Vincennes supermarket.^[23]

The attacks are the deadliest act of terrorism in France since the 1961 Vitry-Le-François train bombing by the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS), a Frenchdissident paramilitary organization opposed to the independence of Algeria, when 28 people died.^[24]

The remaining staff of Charlie Hebdo announced that publication will continue, with the next week's edition of the newspaper to be released as usual,^[25] but this time with a print run of one million copies, much higher than the usual circulation of 60,000 copies.^[26]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Background
• 2 Event
  • 2.1 Motive
  • 2.2 Victims
  • 2.3 Suspects
    • 2.3.1 Manhunt
• 3 Related hostage takings and sieges
  • 3.1 Montrouge Shooting
  • 3.2 Dammartin-en-Goële Hostage Crisis
  • 3.3 Porte de Vincennes Hostage Crisis
• 4 Aftermath
  • 4.1 France
  • 4.2 Security
  • 4.3 Demonstrations
• 5 Reactions
  • 5.1 Government
  • 5.2 Other countries
  • 5.3 International organisations
  • 5.4 Media
  • 5.5 Muslim reactions
    • 5.5.1 Condemning the attack
    • 5.5.2 Support for attack
  • 5.6 Other
• 6 See also
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Background[edit]

Main article: Charlie Hebdo

The former building of Charlie Hebdo after it had been set aflame in 2011.

Charlie Hebdo (French pronunciation: ​[ʃaʁli ɛbdo]; French for Weekly Charlie) is a satirical weekly newspaper in France that features cartoons, reports, polemics and jokes. Irreverent and stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication is stronglyantireligious^[27] and left-wing, publishing articles about the extreme right, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, politics and culture. The magazine was first published from 1969 to 1981. It folded, but was resurrected in 1992.^[28]

The magazine, which has a history of attracting controversy, was unsuccessfully sued in 2006 by Islamic organizations for having published the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons. The cover of a 2011 issue, dubbed "Charia Hebdo" (a pun on Sharia law), depicted a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.^[29] The newspaper's office, at the time in the 20th arrondissement, was fire-bombed^[30] and its website hacked^[31]Religion was a primary target of the magazine, and two years before the attack, Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier stated, "We have to carry on until Islam has been rendered as banal as Catholicism."^[32]

In 2012, the newspaper published a series of satirical cartoons of Muhammad, including nude caricatures;^[33][34] this came days after a series of attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East, purportedly in response to the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims, prompting the French government to close embassies, consulates, cultural centers and international schools in about 20 Muslim countries.^[35] Riot police surrounded the newspaper's offices to protect against possible attacks.^[34][36]

Cartoonist Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier was the editor-in-chief from 2009 until his death in the shooting. In 2013, he had been added to al-Qaeda's most wanted list, along with three Jyllands-Posten staff members: Kurt Westergaard, Carsten Justeand Flemming Rose.^[37][38][39]

Event[edit]

On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 CET (10:30 UTC), two masked gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles, a shotgun and aRPG launcher stormed Charlie Hebdo's Paris headquarters.^{[4][5][6][7][13][40]} They opened fire with automatic weapons while shouting "Allahu Akbar", as captured in a video.^[18] They shot and killed 12 people, and wounded 11 others.^[15][41] Two of those killed were police officers.^[42]

Before the shooting, the gunmen burst into number 6 Rue Nicolas-Appert, where the magazine's archives were based. The gunmen reportedly shouted, "Is this Charlie Hebdo?", before realising they had the wrong address and left. They then went to the magazine's headquarters at number 10 Rue Nicolas-Appert.^[43]

Cartoonist Corinne "Coco" Rey reported that two armed and hooded men, speaking perfect French, threatened the life of her toddler daughter whom she had picked up from day care, and forced her to type in the code to open the door to the building.^[44][45] The men went to an office on the second floor, where the staff were in an editorial meeting with about 15 members in attendance.^[46] The shooting lasted five to ten minutes. Witnesses reported that the gunmen sought out members of the staff by name^[47] before shooting them execution-style.^[48] Other witnesses reported that the gunmen identified themselves as belonging to Al-Qaeda in Yemen.^[9]

Journalist Sigolène Vinson reported that one of the shooters aimed his gun at her but spared her. "I'm not killing you because you are a woman and we don't kill women but you have to convert to Islam, read the Qu'ran and wear a veil," he told her. She said he left, shouting, "Allahu akbar, allahu akbar."^[49][50][51]

An authenticated video surfaced on the Internet showing two gunmen and a wounded police officer, Ahmed Merabet, the latter lying in pain on a sidewalk near the corner of Boulevard Richard-Lenoir and Rue Moufle, 180 metres east of the main crime scene, after an exchange of gunfire. One of the gunmen had run towards the policeman, shouting in French, "Did you want to kill me?" The policeman answered, "No, it's good, chief", and raised his hand towards the gunman, who shot the policeman in the head at close range.^[52]

The gunmen left the scene, shouting, "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad. We have killed Charlie Hebdo!"^[53][54] The gunmen escaped in a getaway car and drove to Porte de Pantin, hijacking on the way (corner of Rue de Meaux and Passage de la Brie)^[55] another car, forcing the driver out.^[15] As they fled, they ran over a pedestrian and shot at responding police officers.^[56]

It was initially believed there were three suspects.^[41] A massive manhunt began immediately after the attack, after one suspect left his ID card in an abandoned getaway car.^[57][58] Police officers searched apartments in the Parisian region, in Strasbourgand Reims.^[59][60] One identified suspect turned himself in at a Charleville-Mézières police station. The two other suspects later robbed a filling station near Villers-Cotterêts.^[61][62] There are mixed reports of explosions near the warehouse.

Seven acquaintances of the Kouachi brothers were taken into custody.^[63] Jihadist flags and Molotov cocktails were found in an abandoned getaway car.^[64] The RAID and the GIGN began searching for the two suspects between Villers-Cotterêts andCrépy-en-Valois; the suspects were said to have abandoned their cars before hiding in a forest near Longpont.^[65] As of 10:07 CET on 9 January, the French government confirmed that there had been an exchange of fire in the area near the commune ofDammartin-en-Goële,^[66] 35 kilometres (22 mi) northeast of Paris. It has been reported that several people have been injured, and at least one person killed, in the gunfire.^[67] Later there was a siege at Création Tendance Découverte, a signage production company on an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goële, and by that point the gunmen held a hostage.^[67]

Motive[edit]

Hatred for Charlie Hebdo '​s cartoons, which made jokes about Islamic leaders as well as Muhammad, is perceived to be the main motive for the massacre. Former deputy director of the CIA, Michael J. Morell, proposed that the motive of the attackers was "[a]bsolutely clear: trying to shut down a media organization that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad".^[68]

In March 2013, Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, commonly known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released a hit list in an edition of their English-language magazine Inspire. The list included Stéphane Charbonnier and others whom AQAP accused of insulting Islam.^[69][70]

On 7 January 2015, Charlie Hebdo tweeted a cartoon of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The sarcastic cartoon offers best wishes to Al-Baghdadi; he replies, "And especially good health." The cartoon is signed "HONORE", signifying the cartoon was drawn by Philippe Honoré, who died in the attack later that day. It was Charlie Hebdo '​s final tweet before the massacre.^[71]

Victims[edit]

Killed:

• Frédéric Boisseau, 42, building maintenance worker for Sodexo, killed in the lobby.
• Franck Brinsolaro, 49, police (SDLP) officer, assigned as a bodyguard for Charb.^[72]
• Cabu (Jean Cabut), 76, cartoonist.
• Elsa Cayat, 54, psychoanalyst and columnist.
• Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier), 47, cartoonist, columnist, and editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo.
• Philippe Honoré, 74, cartoonist.
• Bernard Maris, 68, economist, editor, and columnist.^[73][74]
• Ahmed Merabet, 42, Muslim police officer of Algerian descent,^[75][76] shot in the head as he lay wounded on the ground outside.^{[47][77][78][79]}
• Moustapha Ourrad, Algerian copy-editor.^{[80][81][82][75]}
• Michel Renaud, 69, guest at the meeting.^[83]
• Tignous (Bernard Verlhac), 57, cartoonist.^[84]
• Georges Wolinski, 80, cartoonist.^[85]

• 

  Cabu in 2012
   
• 

  Charb in 2011
   
• 

  Tignous in 2008
   
• 

  Wolinski in 2011

Wounded:

• Simon Fieschi, 31, webmaster, shot in the shoulder^[86]
• Philippe Lançon (fr), journalist, shot in the face and in critical condition
• Fabrice Nicolino, 59, journalist, shot in the leg
• Laurent "Riss" Sourisseau (fr), 48, cartoonist, shot in the shoulder^[87]
• Unidentified police officers^[88][89][90]

Three people in the meeting were unharmed; two staff members, Sigolène Vinson (fr) and Laurent Léger (fr); and Gerard Gaillard, a guest. The cartoonist who arrived late, and was coerced into letting the shooters inside the building was Corinne "Coco" Ray, also unharmed.^[91][92][93]

Suspects[edit]

Saïd Kouachi left his identification card with this image in the getaway car.

French police identified Saïd Kouachi (7 September 1980 – 9 January 2015) and Chérif Kouachi(29 November 1982 – 9 January 2015) as the main suspects for the masked gunmen.^[94][95] The two Franco-Algerian Muslims, both from Gennevilliers, were aged 34 and 32 respectively.^{[94][96][97][98]} Their parents were Algerian immigrants to France.^[99] The brothers were orphaned at a young age, and Chérif was raised in foster care in Rennes before joining his brother in Paris.^[97]

Cherif Kouachi, who also went by the name Abu Issen, was part of the "Buttes-Chaumont network" that helped send would-be jihadists to fight for al-Qaeda in Iraq after the United States and United Kingdom led invasion in 2003. Chérif was arrested in January 2005, at age 22, when he and another man were about to leave for Bashar al-Assad's Syria – at the time the gateway for jihadists to fight US troops in Iraq. Following Cherif's imprisonment between January 2005 and October 2006, Le Monde reported that he came into contact with Djamel Beghal. Beghal was sentenced to 10 years in prison in France in 2001 for his part in a plot to bomb the United States embassy in Paris.^[100]

He became a student of Farid Benyettou, a radical Muslim preacher at the Addawa Mosque in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Kouachi wanted to attack Jewish targets in France but Benyettou told him that France, unlike Iraq, was not "a land of jihad".^[101]

In 2008, Chérif Kouachi was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to three years in prison, with 18 months suspended, for having assisted in sending fighters to militant Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group^[102] in Iraq, and for being part of a group that solicited young French Muslims to fight with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq.^{[94][98][103]} Chérif Kouachi said he was inspired to help Iraq's insurgency by outrage at the torture of inmates of the US prison at Abu Ghraib.^[104][105]In 2010 Cherif and Said Kouachi were named in connection with a plot to spring another Islamist, Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, from jail but they were not prosecuted, for lack of evidence.^[106][107]

In 2011, Saïd Kouachi visited Yemen for a number of months and trained with Al Qaeda militants in the Arabian Peninsula.^[108]

The police identified an 18-year-old unemployed French Muslim man of North-African descent and unknown nationality as a third suspect in the shooting, accused of driving the getaway car.^{[94][109][110]} He is believed to have been living recently inCharleville-Mézières, about 200 km northeast of Paris near France's border with Belgium.^[111] On 8 January, it was reported he had turned himself in at a Charleville-Mézières police station.^[111][112] The man said he was in class at the time of the shooting.^[113] His involvement in the attack is questionable as all of his classmates testified that he was present at school in Charleville-Mézières during the attack.^[114] Police say that he is currently not being charged.^[115]

Manhunt[edit]

At 10:30 CET on 8 January, the day following the attack, the two suspects were said to have been spotted in Aisne, north-east of Paris. Armed security forces, including the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) and the Force d'intervention de la police nationale (FIPN), were deployed to the department to search for the suspects.^[14]

Later that day, the police search was reported to be concentrating on the Picardy region, particularly the area around Villers-Cotterets and the village of Longpont, after the suspects had been reported to have robbed a petrol station near Villers-Cotterets.^[116] Searches continued into the surrounding Forêt de Retz, one of the largest forests of France.^[117]

The manhunt ended with the discovery of the fugitive suspects, which marked the start of a siege in Dammartin-en-Goële (see below) that was eventually resolved by police storming their location.

Related hostage takings and sieges[edit]

Shooting of Clarissa Jean-Philippe

Porte de Vincennes Hostage Crisis

Charlie Hebdo shooting

Locations of attacks in Paris.

2015 Paris hostage crisis
Location	Porte de Vincennes, Paris, France
Date	9 January 2015
Target	Hypercacher (Jewish Kosher store)
Attack type	Hostage-taking
Deaths	4 (+ 1 perpetrator)
Perpetrator	Amedy Coulibaly, Hayat Boumeddiene

Shooting of Clarissa Jean-Philippe
Montrouge in Paris
Location	Montrouge, Paris, France
Date	January 8, 2015
Target	Clarissa Jean-Philippe[118]
Attack type	Assassination, Shooting
Deaths	1
Non-fatal injuries	0
Perpetrator	Amedy Coulibaly, Hayat Boumeddiene

Montrouge Shooting[edit]

On 8 January, Jihadist Amedy Coulibaly shot and killed municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge -- a southern suburb of Paris. An unnamed street sweeper was also severely wounded in the attack. Press sources have stated that Coulibaly was from the same Jihadist group as the gunmen who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attack, and French police have said there is a "connection" between them.^{[citation needed]}

Dammartin-en-Goële Hostage Crisis[edit]

As of 10:07 CET on 9 January, the government confirmed that there had been an exchange of fire in the area near the commune of Dammartin-en-Goële,^[66] 35 kilometres (22 mi) northeast of Paris. It is now reported that a siege is underway at Création Tendance Découverte, a signage production company on an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goële, at 49.063122°N 2.694095°E, and that the gunmen have taken a 26-year-old male hostage.^[119] Given the proximity (10 km) of the siege to Charles de Gaulle Airport, two of the airport's runways have been closed.^[67][120] Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve stated that "an operation is under way which is set to neutralise the perpetrators of the cowardly attack carried out two days ago", however an Interior Ministry spokesman announced it first wanted to "establish a dialogue" with the suspects. Officials established contact with the suspects, and negotiated the safe evacuation of a school 500 m from the siege.^[121]

The Kouachi brothers were held up inside of a printworks office with one hostage.Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that they both had been killed after they "[came] out firing" on security forces and that their hostage had been rescued.^[67]

Porte de Vincennes Hostage Crisis[edit]

Also on 9 January, an armed gunman, speculated to be Amedy Coulibaly, 32, attacked a Hypercacher kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes, east Paris, taking at least five hostages and reportedly killing at least four people.^[122][67] He had a female accomplice, speculated to be Hayat Boumeddiene, 26.^[123] It was later confirmed that Coulibaly was the gunman of Montrouge.^[124] Police stormed the store, and Coulibaly was gunned down by police.^[125] The current whereabouts of Hayat Boumeddiene and her degree of involvement in the siege is as of yet unknown.

Aftermath[edit]

France[edit]

The remaining staff of Charlie Hebdo announced that the next week's edition of the newspaper was to be released as usual. With eight pages it will be half its usual length and will have a print run of one million copies, compared with its usual 60,000.^[126] The Digital Innovation Press Fund donated €250,000 to support the magazine,^[127] matching a donation by the French Press and Pluralism Fund.^[128] The Guardian Media Group has pledged a separate donation of £100,000 to the same cause.^[129]

There were attacks on two mosques and a restaurant nearby, and another on a mosque elsewhere in France, apparently in retaliation for the shootings.^[130][131]

On January 9, 2015, the surviving staff of Charlie Hebdo gathered to begin work on the next issue of the magazine. The surviving staff includes cartoonists and journalists Catherine Meurisse (fr), Gérard Biard (fr), Patrick Pelloux (fr), Antonio Fischetti (fr), Luz (author) (fr), Willem (author) (fr), Babouse (fr) and Richard Malka (fr).^[132]

Muslim reactions[edit]

Condemning the attack[edit]

The French Council of the Muslim Faith and the Muslim Council of Britain spoke out against the attack, with Imam Dalil Boubakeur stating, "[W]e are horrified by the brutality and the savagery."^[275] The Union of Islamic Organisations of Francereleased a statement condemning the attack, along with Imam Hassen Chalghoumi saying that those behind the attack "have sold their soul to hell".^[276] The vice president of the U.S. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community also condemned the attack, saying, "The culprits behind this atrocity have violated every Islamic tenet of compassion, justice, and peace."^[277] According toInternational Business Times columnist Zoe Mintz, the "Je suis Charlie" slogan was also used by Muslim social media users, with some condemning the attack specifically as an assault on free speech.^[278] She also noted that some users were concerned that: "Muslims will be linked to an attack committed by extremists and become the target of discrimination".^[278]

The League of Arab States released a collective condemnation of the attack. Al-Azhar University also released a statement denouncing the attack, stating that violence was never appropriate regardless of "offence committed against sacred Muslim sentiments".^[279]

Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, raised concerns that the attack could fuel further anti-Islamic stances in France and in Europe as a whole, stances which he said help to fuel terrorism itself. The Dutch Council of Moroccan Mosques also raised concerns that the tension could result in anti-Islam violence in the Netherlands.^[280]

Support for attack[edit]

The Guardian reported that "[o]ther Muslims said they would only condemn the Paris attack if France condemned the killings of Muslims worldwide."^[281] Anjem Choudary, a British Islamist, wrote an editorial in USA Today in which he claimed justification from the words of Muhammad that those who insult prophets should face death, and claimed that Muhammad should be protected in order to prevent further violence.^[282] Saudi-Australian Islamic preacher Junaid Thorne said: "If you want to enjoy 'freedom of speech' with no limits, expect others to exercise 'freedom of action'."^[283]

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Yaqub Qureishi, a Muslim MLA and former Minister from Uttar Pradesh, India has offered a reward of  0.51 billion (US$ 8  million) to the attackers at the Charlie Hebdo shootings.^{[284][285][286][287]} Further he said that there was no need to initiate legal proceedings in this case.^[288] Qureshi had hit the headlines in 2006 after declaring a reward of Rs. 51 crore to anyone who would kill the Danish cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, who had created a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. He had made the offer at a public rally in Meerut.^[289]

Former Union Minister and Indian National Congress senior leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has also defended the attacks on twitter and TV channels^[290] as obvious response to France banning Hijab(veil) and American attack on Iraq and Afghanistan.^{[291][292][293][294][295][296]} He suffered a heavy backlash from Indian public following his controversial remarks on twitter and video channels.^[297]

ISIS militant Abu Mussab from Syria praised the massacre and referred to the gunmen who carried out the attack as "lions of Islam", stating, "[They] have avenged our Prophet. These are our lions. It's the first drops [of blood]—more will follow."^[298]

Two Islamist newspapers in Turkey ran headlines that were seen by some as justifying the attack. The Yeni Akit newspaper ran an article entitled "Attack on the magazine that provoked Muslims", and Türkiye, a newspaper close to the government, ran an article entitled "Attack on the magazine that insulted our Prophet".^[299]

Other[edit]

Salman Rushdie, who is also on the 2013 Al-Qaeda most wanted list^[37] and received death threats after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, expressed his support for Charlie Hebdo. He said, "I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity ... religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today."^[300]

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, of the Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy and also on the 2013 Al-Qaeda most wanted list, condemned the attacks and said that the terrorists "got what they wanted. They've scared people. People were scared before, but with this attack fear will grow even larger"^[301] and that the attack "expose[s] the world we live in today".^[302]

Bill Donohue, president of the U.S. Catholic League, said Charlie Hebdo had a "long and disgusting record" of mocking religious figures and that Charb "didn't understand the role he played in his tragic death. In 2012, when asked why he insults Muslims, he said, 'Muhammad isn't sacred to me.' Had he not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive."^[303]

Some Twitter accounts supported the gunmen in the Paris terror attack and celebrated on Twitter.^[304] In response, hacktivist group Anonymous released a statement in which they offered condolences to the families of the victims and denounced the attack as an "inhuman assault" on the freedom of expression. They also directly addressed the terrorists, "[a] message for al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists -- we are declaring war against you, the terrorists." As such, Anonymous plans to target Jihadist websites as well as social media accounts linked to supporting Islamic terrorism with the aim of disrupting them and shutting them down.^[305]

See also[edit]

• Censorship in Islamic societies
• List of Islamic terrorist attacks
• List of massacres in France
• Theo van Gogh (film director), murdered after he made the short film Submission (2004), which criticized the treatment of women in Islam

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