French Police Storm Hostage Sites, Killing Gunmen

Paris: A tense, dramatic day of spiraling crises that had paralyzed parts of Paris and its suburbs, drawn an army of law enforcement officers and shaken the French government ended in bloodshed on Friday, as the police conducted simultaneous raids in response to two hostage situations that had extended a wave of terror. (Supermarket Gunman Told French TV He 'Coordinated' with Charlie Hebdo Killers)

The operations against two suspected militants in a printing factory north of Paris, and against a third man who had seized hostages at a kosher market in the eastern part of the city, began with explosions, the sound of gunfire and then quiet.

The militants in the factory, two brothers, had set off the terror on Wednesday by spraying the office of a satirical newspaper with gunfire, massacring 12 people. An associate was suspected of assassinating a police officer on Thursday before taking hostages at the kosher market on Friday. All three were killed in the police operations.

A hostage who had been held by the two brothers was freed unharmed, the authorities said.

But four hostages were killed and five injured at the supermarket, although it was not immediately clear how many of those might have been shot in the final assault. Five hostages were reported to have been freed unharmed, a senior French police official said. ('I Shook His Hand': French Salesman on Run-In with Massacre Suspect)

Addressing the nation Friday night, President Francois Hollande saluted the special police forces that had conducted the operations. He called for vigilance and unity against "fanatics."

"It is our best weapon," he said. "We can fight against anything that could divide us."

Hollande also labeled the attack at the kosher supermarket a horrific "anti-Semitic act."

"Following this ordeal, I can assure you: We will emerge even stronger," he said.

Although the immediate crises had ended, France remained deeply traumatized, and a period of mourning began for the 17 victims who had been swept up in the violence. The attack on the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, has already been called "France's September 11" by Le Monde.

The attack on Wednesday set off soul-searching about Islamic integration in France's impoverished immigrant suburbs, the radicalization of disenfranchised young people on society's margins and the failure of the French security apparatus to fend off the assault by the suspects, who had been known to the police for years and had been closely monitored by the intelligence services.

One of the two brothers, Said Kouachi, 34, had traveled to Yemen in 2011 and received terrorist training from al-Qaida's affiliate there before returning to France, according to U.S. officials. His younger brother Chérif Kouachi, a sometime pizza delivery man and fishmonger, had been arrested in France in 2005 as he prepared to leave for Syria, the first leg of a trip he had hoped would take him to Iraq, and convicted three years later.

During the attack on the newspaper, the assailants identified themselves as being part of al-Qaida and shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is great." Their blatant embrace of Islam during an act of violence has been seized upon by those who have been warning about the gulf between Islam and the values of the West.

The events are already resonating in French politics and could embolden the ascendant far-right National Front, which has railed against the failure of immigrants, and Muslims in particular, to integrate into French society. (Slain French Police Officer Inspires New Protest Refrain: 'I Am Ahmed')

It could also further damage the standing of Hollande one of the most unpopular presidents in recent French history, who was already confronting a struggling economy and questions about his leadership. (Paris Attack: PM Modi talks to French President Francois Hollande)

The attacks have also spawned fears among Muslims. In the hours after the newspaper was targeted, two Muslim places of worship were shot at, and there was an explosion at a kebab shop in eastern France. No one was hurt in those assaults.

The Kouachi brothers had been on the run since the attack on Charlie Hebdo, but were tracked to the printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goele, 25 miles north of Paris, early Friday. They were armed and holding a single hostage.

After hours of unsuccessful negotiations, during which the brothers told the authorities that they were ready to die as martyrs, the police began the simultaneous raids about 5 p.m.

Rocco Contento, spokesman for the Unité SGP police union in Paris, who confirmed that the brothers were dead, said the raids had unfolded rapidly.

"The operation in Dammartin is finished," Contento said. "The two suspects have been killed and the hostage has been freed. The special counterterrorism forces located where the terrorists are and broke down the door. They took them by surprise. It lasted a matter of minutes."

While the brothers were holding the printing plant, a man said to be an associate, Amedy Coulibaly, seized hostages at Hyper Cacher, a kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes.

Coulibaly, who police said had gunned down a female police officer in Montrouge, a suburb south of Paris on Thursday, threatened to kill his hostages if the Kouachi brothers were attacked by the police.

In a measure of the jitters pervading the city during the day-long siege, the police ordered shopkeepers on Rue des Rosiers, a street with many Jewish-owned businesses, to close as a precaution.

Earlier in the day, the police said that Coulibaly was believed to be part of the same jihadist network as the Kouachi brothers, and that a terrorism investigation had been opened. While he held the hostages, they issued a photograph of Coulibaly and appealed for witnesses to come forward.

They also published a photograph of a woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who they said was also implicated in the Montrouge attack.

They said he and she were both armed and dangerous.

Before the raid on the printing plant, Mohamed Douhane, a senior police officer who was following the negotiations with the Kouachis, said that the police were in contact with the two suspects and that they hoped to resolve the standoff peacefully.

"We have established communication with the Kouachi brothers," he said. "They said they wanted to die as martyrs. They are behaving like two determined terrorists who are certainly physically exhausted, but who want to escape with one last big show of force and heroic resistance. They feel trapped and know that their last hours have come."

The police said the brothers had been located at the printing warehouse by helicopters equipped with heat sensors. Shortly afterward, residents saw security forces drop down on ropes from helicopters hovering over the area.

Aircraft had been advised to avoid certain runways at the airport as a precaution. Residents of Dammartin-en-Goele were told to stay indoors. Students were locked down in their schools and were being kept away from windows and doors. Shortly after noon, town officials announced that students at schools nearest the area of the operations were being evacuated by the police and taken to another school to be picked up by their parents. Helicopters were circling the town as a cold drizzle fell.

Hollande, after meeting with local officials at the Interior Ministry in the early hours of the siege, said, "France is going through a trying time," and called this week's attack "the worst of the past 50 years."