How Charlie Hebdo atrocity rocked the world after al-Qaeda terror bros stormed French mag killing 12 a decade ago today
Three days of horror were caused by al-Qaeda terrorists who invaded the satirical French publication Charlie Hebdo in Paris ten years ago today.
The paper’s headquarters were violently ambushed by brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, ages 32 and 34, who killed 11 people in retaliation for publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
CHARLIE HEBDO
The two al-Qaeda shooters broke into the Charlie Hebdo magazine’s Paris offices on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.
Before making cartoonist Corinne Rey open the second-floor office where the editorial meeting was taking place, the Kouachi brothers shot and killed Frederic Boisseau, the custodian.
Police officer Franck Brinsolaro, editor Stephane Charbonnier, and cartoonists Jean Cabut, Georges Wolinski, Bernard Verlhac, and Philippe Honore were all killed when the terrorist brothers broke into the conference room.
The horrific attack also claimed the lives of copy editor Mustapha Ourrad, psychiatrist Elsa Cayat, economist and writer Bernard Maris, and guest Michel Renaud.
The malevolent Kouachi brothers appeared on the street five minutes after the bombings and departed the site in their vehicle.
When they tried to travel north, they were shot at by a police car, and one courageous officer, Ahmed Merabet, was wounded before being shot in the head by one of the brothers.
Eight journalists, two police officers, a caretaker, and a visitor were among the horrifying twelve individuals who perished in the horrific attacks.
The two terrorists ultimately wreck their car and take control of another car, a Renault Clio, telling the driver, in a scary manner, “If the media ask you anything, tell them it’s al-Qaeda in Yemen.”
There were several vigils conducted throughout France and the world that evening, including one in the Place de la Republique.
THREE DAYS OF TERROR
News of yet another horrific attack in Paris surfaced the next day.
Amedy Coulibaly, an Islamic State terrorist, shot and killed 25-year-old trainee police officer Clarissa Jean-Phillipe in the southern suburb of Montrougue.
At first, French authorities claimed to be searching for Coulibaly and his wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, in relation to the incident.
Police initially believed the shooting had nothing to do with the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but it turned out that the Kouachi brothers and the Montrouge gunmen knew one another.
The Kouachi terror brothers were spotted heading north via Picardy that same day, heavily armed and donning balaclavas.
With assault guns and frightening rocket launchers visible in the back of their getaway car, they looted a gas station northeast of Paris and drove off.
A massive manhunt was conducted in a neighboring wooded region, but it was unsuccessful.
The two shooters abandoned the Renault they were driving and took control of a gray Peugeot 206 at Montagny-Sainte-Felicite the following day.
A teacher said that they had weapons in her car, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, when they confiscated it.
There were no deaths from another gunfight that took place on a freeway between the brothers and police.
The brothers held a prisoner at a printing plant after driving into an industrial area in the village of Dammartin-en-Go lge, northeast of Paris.
A heart-stopping eight-hour standoff ensued as hundreds of armed officers encircled the building, holding snipers while helicopters buzzed overhead, completely blocking off any escape path.
Early in the evening, gunfire and explosions caused smoke to rise from the print works.
The Kouachi brothers fired at the cops as they came out of the building.
Two police officers were hurt in the gunfight, and the terrorists were killed.
Later, it was revealed that the brothers had freed the prisoner and that another man had escaped the harrowing experience by hiding in the cafeteria of the building.
He was reportedly texting police with intelligence, but the attackers were unaware of his presence.
In the meantime, Amedy Coulibaly, the shooter from Montrouge, broke inside and attacked a Jewish grocery in Paris’s Porte de Vincennes.
During the siege, he killed four Jewish hostages and detained fifteen others while demanding that the Kouachi brothers, who were responsible for the Charlie Hebdo shootings, not be hurt.
As special forces focused on killer Coulibaly, explosions were reported in the Paris supermarket at approximately 17:30 local time, just minutes after the siege of the printworks ended.
When elite commandos stormed the supermarket, killing the terrorist and releasing the 15 hostages, Coulibaly was kneeling for evening prayers.
Four million French marched in solidarity days after the world-shaking atrocities.
On social media, the phrase “Je suis Charlie” also gained international traction.
TRIALS OF ACCOMPLICES
A Paris court finds 14 defendants guilty of being accomplices in the 2015 attacks in December 2020.
Charlie Hebdo reproduced the Prophet Mohammed cartoons from 2015 with images of the killed employees on the day of the trial, with the caption, “All of this, for this.”
Eleven of the fourteen accused showed up for court, while three were tried in absentia.
All 14 were convicted of a variety of offenses, ranging from direct cooperation in the January 2015 attacks to membership in a criminal network.
Six of the 11 prisoners found guilty of lesser offenses in court had their terrorism accusations withdrawn.
Hayat Boumeddine, the terrorist Coulibaly’s widow, was among those who did not appear in court.
Boumeddine received a 30-year sentence after being found guilty of both financing terrorism and being a member of a criminal terrorist network.
A week prior to the assaults, she went to Syria, and her current location is still unknown.
STABBING ATTACK IN 2020
A man attacked two people who were at Charlie Hebdo’s old headquarters in September 2020.
According to Euro News, suspect Zaheer Mahmood, who is on trial for the crime, was unaware that the magazine had relocated when he carried out the attack.
The two victims lived.
When police questioned him, Mahmood said that his “anger” stemmed from one of the prophet Muhammad’s pictures that had been republished in September 2020.
On the morning of the attack, he declared in a social media video: “Here, today, on Friday 25 September, I’m going to go and revolt against that.”
According to documents obtained by FranceInfo, Mahmood is charged with terrorist murder, while five other suspects are charged with criminal terrorist conspiracy.
TEN YEARS ON
Charlie Hebdo released a special edition 32-page issue ten years after the attack that claimed the lives of twelve people.
“Indestructible” is the title of the front page, which celebrates the existence of the publication with a cartoon sitting on the butt of a gun.
In an editorial, cartoonist and magazine director Laurent Sourisseau, who survived the 2015 massacre, stated: “Optimism is a quality of satire that has sustained us during these terrible times.
“You feel like living if you want to laugh.
“Caricature, irony, and laughter are all manifestations of optimism.
“Whatever happens, dramatic or happy, the desire to laugh will never disappear.”
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Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a number of ceremonies in Paris to remember the 2015 attacks.
Across the nation, other memorial services are scheduled.
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