One
of the suspects in the Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine has been
killed and the two others are in custody, two senior U.S.
counterterrorism officials told BBC News on Wednesday.
Authorities
earlier had identified the three men as Said Kouachi and Cherif
Kouachi, both French and in their early 30s, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, whose
nationality wasn't immediately clear.
One
of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they
weren't authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, told the BBC
that the men were linked to a Yemeni terrorist network. Cherif Kouachi
was convicted in 2008 of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters
to Iraq's insurgency and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Twelve people were killed in the attack
by gunmen, armed with AK-47s, who attacked the offices of Charlie
Hebdo, a publication that has enraged Muslims for publishing cartoons
depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
On their way in, they killed a maintenance worker, then stormed into an editorial meeting, where they killed eight journalists.
A
source familiar with the investigation told NBC News that the men
targeted those magazine employees who had created or published cartoons
showing Muhammad — asking for their victims by name. They executed
editor and cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, popularly known as Charb;
Bernard Maris, a Bank of France economist who was a columnist for the
magazine; and three cartoonists.
A
security officer and a guest were also gunned down. As they fled, they
killed a second police officer. Eleven other people were injured, four
of them critically, officials said.
Because
the masked, black-clad gunmen attacked with militaristic precision and
left the scene with shouts of "Allahu Akbar," the killers were suspected
to be well-trained Islamic extremists.
Little
information was immediately available about Mourad and Said Kouachi,
but Cherif Kouachi has been suspected of involvement in terrorist groups
for at least a decade. In January 2005, he and another French national
were arrested in Paris as they were planning to fly to Iraq via Syria.
Kouachi was described at the time as one of two deputies to the leader
of an operation to send young volunteers to Iraq to fight U.S.-led
forces.
Authorities linked the
operation to the 19th Arrondissement Network, named for the Paris
district where it was based, which is home to many Muslim families with
roots in France's former North African colonies. Kouachi was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to three years in prison, 18 months of which were suspended.
The Associated Press quoted Cherif Kouachi in 2008
as saying he'd been motivated by outrage at images of torture of Iraqi
inmates at the U.S. prison at Abu Ghraib. "I really believed in the
idea," it quoted him as saying.
While
authorities hunted the suspects Wednesday, shock and mourning spread
across Paris and the rest of France, a country with an estimated 5
million Muslims. France has a long, troubled relationship with its Arab
immigrants and a more recent history of unrest among young native-born
Muslims. There has been growing concern about young men and women
returning to France after joining jihadist activity in the Middle East.
Thousands
of Parisians took to the streets in spontaneous and defiant
demonstrations of unity. They lighted candles and held signs declaring
"Je Suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie") in reference to the magazine. At the
Place de la Republique, they crammed themselves up onto the monument in
the middle of the square and chanted "Charlie! Liberty!" Candles,
posters and signs covered the three statues representing Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity — the bedrock of French values.
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