French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said “several arrests”
have been made overnight in the hunt for two suspects in the deadly shooting.
Preventing another attack “is our main concern,” he said.
Police have released the names of three suspects, including pictures
of two brothers, who are believed to have been behind France’s worst terrorist
attack for more than half a century. A vast manhunt is underway to find
brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, who were described as being in their early
30s and were considered to be armed and dangerous.
Chérif Kouachi, who is now 32, was sentenced to 18 months in
prison in 2008 after being convicted of terrorism charges for helping funnel
fighters to Iraq’s insurgency. He said at the time he was outraged atthe
torture of Iraqi inmates at the US prison at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad.
Police also named 18-year-old suspect Hamyd Mourad after he
turned himself in at a police station in Charleville-Mézières, a small town in
France’s eastern Champagne region. There are reports that the teenager decided
to go to the police after seeing his name on social media.
President François Hollande has declared a day of national
mourning. Flags will flags at half-mast for three days, and a minute’s silence
will be observed at midday across the country and the bells of Notre Dame in
the capital will toll.
Details of the 12 victims have been confirmed. Nine of the
victims were journalists with the magazine, including the publisher and lead
cartoonist. A building maintenance worker and two policemen were also killed.
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