Two suspects who were the subjects of an intense manhunt after the deadly terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo were killed in a police assault on Friday north of Paris.
Cherif Kouachi, 32, and his brother Said, 34, had been cornered in a printing warehouse in Dammartin-en-Goele. Both brothers were killed in the assault.The brothers had been trapped in the printing plant for seven hours and they were believed to be holding at least one hostage, according to NBC News.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Rocco Contento” author_title=”Spokesman for the Unite SGP police union in Paris”]
The operation in Danmartin is finished. The two suspects have been killed and the hostage has been freed. The special counter-terrorism forces located where the terrorists are and broke down the door. They took them by surprise. It lasted a matter of minutes.
[/quote]
The police assault occurred at the same time as a second standoff in which a gunman seized hostages at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincenees in Paris. The gunman, who was linked to the killing of a policewoman and the attack on Charlie Hebdo, was killed.
The standoff ended amid gunshots and an explosion. Earlier, two hostages were killed in the market as the gunman opened fire with an automatic rifle at the supermarket. Several people were wounded, according to USA Today.
Police named two suspects in the shooting of policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe on Thursday as Amedy Coulibaly, 32, and his girlfriend, Hayat Boumeddiene, 26.
The coordinated assaults came after the Paris gunman threatened to kill the hostages if police stormed the industrial park where the Kouachi brothers were trapped.
The two assaults took place almost simultaneously. Police believe the gunman at the market and the Kouachi brothers knew each other, possibly from time served in prison in 2005. Coulibaly appears to have been well-known to French authorities. He had been repeatedly held for crimes such as theft and drug trafficking as far back as 2001, and he was convicted in 2013 of being involved in an attempt to help a militant Islamist escape from prison, according to the Washington Post.
