Paris In Shock After Three Days Of Deadly Terrorist Shootings And Sieges

"We have a lot of new friends, like the pope, Queen Elizabeth and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. It really makes me laugh," Bernard Holtrop, who uses the pen name Willem, told Volkskrant.

"We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends," the 73-year-old said.

Willem was on a train at the time of the shooting. "I never come to the editorial meetings because I don't like them. I guess that saved my life," he told the French newspaper Libération.

He also stressed that he believed Charlie Hebdo should continue to publish. "Otherwise, [the Islamists] have won," he said.

ISTANBUL — A Turkish intelligence source has confirmed to BuzzFeed News that Hayat Boumeddiene, the girlfriend of one of the gunmen linked to the Paris attacks, traveled to Istanbul on January 2 and is believed to be in Syria.

The source said that Boumeddiene, who is wanted in France for her connection to the attacks, arrived in Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport from France. She stayed in the city for two days, he said, and then traveled to the Turkish border province of Urfa on Jan. 4. From there, "we lost track of her," the source said. "We think she is most likely in Syria."

It was her first trip to Turkey, he said, suggesting that Boumeddiene had not previously traveled to Syria. He said Turkish authorities were investigating whether Boumeddiene had links to any terror groups inside Syria.

The source added that Boumeddiene was traveling with a man while in Istanbul, and that the two stayed in the same hotel. This was not the same man as Amedy Coulibaly, her boyfriend in France, who killed a French policewoman on Thursday and four hostages in a kosher grocery store on Friday before being killed by French security personnel.

Turkish authorities were investigating whether the man was a "boyfriend" of Boumeddiene, the source added. He declined to release the man's name, saying it was unclear if he was guilty of any crime.

The names of the four people killed Friday during the siege on a Kosher deli in Paris by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly have been released by the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, the BBC reported.

The victims were identified as Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen, and Francois-Michel Saada.

Ahmed Merabet was shot dead outside the newspaper's offices after encountering the Islamist gunmen. His death was captured on cell phone footage, prompting the hashtag #JeSuisAhmed to spread on social media to remember his act of bravery.

His brother, Malek, told reporters that Ahmed's death is a sign it is wrong "to mix extremists with Muslims." He called on people to stop attacking mosques or synagogues in the wake of the attacks.

Ahmed was "very proud to represent the French police and defend the values of the Republic: liberté, égalité, fraternité," Malek Merabet said.

In the recording attributed to a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Sheikh Hareth al-Nadhari said the attack was revenge for insults of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

"Some of the sons of France were disrespectful to the prophets of Allah, so a group from among the believing soldiers of Allah marched unto them, then they taught them respect and the limit of the freedom of expression," al-Nadhari said, according to SITE, a terror monitoring service. "Soldiers who love Allah and His messengers have come unto you, and they do not fear death but adore martyrdom in the cause of Allah."

If AQAP directed the attack, it would be the first time the group has successfully carried out an operation in the West, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. State Department updated a worldwide travel alert for Americans Friday in light of the attacks.

"Recent terrorist attacks, whether by those affiliated with terrorist entities, copycats, or individual perpetrators, serve as a reminder that U.S. citizens need to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness," the statement said.

The alert, which was issued just hours after the attacks in France, said kidnappings of U.S. citizens have become increasingly frequent as al-Qaeda and ISIS attempt to finance their operations through kidnapping and ransom demands.

Four people killed by terror suspect when he entered grocery, prosecutor said.

François Molins, the procureur de la république, during a news conference Friday, said the four hostages killed Friday were dead before the police stormed the market.

He also said that 16 people have been detained by police over the past few days and five remain in custody.

Four hostages were injured in addition to the five people who died, including the gunman, in the kosher grocery store, the interior minister said.

"We're hopeful that the immediate threat is now resolved, thanks to the courage and professionalism of the French personnel on the ground. But, the French government continues to face the threat of terrorism and has to remain vigilant. The situation is fluid."

Here is the translation of the call between the BFM-TV reporter and Kouachi:

Kouachi: We're just telling you that we are the defenders of the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and that I, Cherif Kouachi, was sent by "Al Qaeda in Yemen," ok?

Journalist: Ok

Kouachi: And that I went there and that it's imam Al-Awlaki that financed me.

Journalist: Ok, and how long ago was it?

Kouachi: It was a long time ago. Before he was killed. [inaudible]

Journalist: So you came back to France not long ago?

Kouachi: Oh yes, a while ago… the secret service I know them, don't worry about it. I know very well how I was able to do things well.

Journalist: Ok, and now there is only you and your brother here?

Kouachi: That's not your problem.

Journalist: Some people are behind you, or not?

Kouachi: That's not your problem.

Journalist: Ok, and are you planning on killing again in the name of Allah or not?

Kouachi: Kill who?

Journalist: I don't know. That's what I'm asking you.

Kouachi: Did we kill any civilians in the past two days people have been looking for us?

Journalist: You killed journalists.

Kouachi: No but, did we kill any civilians? Civilians, or people during the two days you spent looking for us?

Journalist: Wait, wait, Cherif, Cherif, did you kill this morning?

Kouachi: But we are not killers. We are defenders of the prophet. We don't kill women, we don't kill anyone. We defend the prophet. If someone offend the prophet then there is no problem, we can kill him. But we don't kill women. We're not like you. You're the ones killing the children of Muslims in Irak, in Syria, in Afghanistan. That's you. Not us. We have honor codes in Islam.

Journalist: But right now you avenged yourself, no? You killed people?

Kouachi: We avenged ourselves exactly. You said it well. You said it yourself, we avenged ourselves.

French Police Say All The Suspects Involved In The Paris Attacks Are Linked To One Man

The brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, the gunmen behind the Charlie Hebdo massacre Wednesday, and Amedy Coulibaly, named by police as the gunman behind the shooting of a policewoman Thursday, all knew one another, say French police.

"I would call upon all French people to stand up this Sunday for liberty" — Hollande

• "It is an anti-Semitic attack that was carried out."
• "These fanatics, they have absolutely nothing to do with Islam and religion."
• "We have to be able to react when attacked with force" but also with solidarity.
• "We are a nation that is not scared, that is not frightened."
• "I would like to salute once again our soldiers."

A reporter for France's BFM-TV claimed to have talked to Chérif Kouachi on Friday morning, and to Amedy Coulibaly in the afternoon in telephone calls, according to Le Monde.

Kouachi claimed he was sent on a mission by Al Qaeda in Yemen and that he was financed by imam Anwar Al Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Coulibaly claimed that he had "synchronized" his actions with the brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo. "They were in charge of Charlie Hebdo, and I was in charge of the cops," he reportetly told the channel. Coulibaly also claimed to be affiliated with ISIS.

Four hostages were killed at the kosher grocery store near Paris.

BuzzFeed News has confirmed that French president Francois Hollande has called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him that four hostages were killed at the Hyper Cacher Supermarket in the Paris-area standoff.

The lawyer for Djamel Beghal, who reportedly mentored Chérif Kouachi, the now-dead suspect in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, responded:

Djamel Beghal's lawyer, Bérenger Tourné, told the AFP that his client is in jail in Rennes. He said Beghal told him that he had "nothing to do" with the attacks and that he was worried about the safety of his family based in London, because of the way he was being portrayed in the media. According to Le Monde, Djamel Beghal has been in jail since 2005, when he was sentenced to 10 years in jail for planning an attack on the American embassy in Paris.

Police told the AP that the gunman, now dead, in the kosher grocery hostage situation is Amedy Coulibaly, who was wanted for the second suspect in the shooting death of the police officer south of Paris from Thursday.

Authorities are still searching for his accomplice in the attack on the officer, Hayat Boumeddiene.

Yemeni Official: No Contact With Paris About Charlie Hebdo Attack

From BuzzFeed News reporter Gregory D. Johnsen:

A Yemeni official says the government has yet to receive any information requests from France despite reports that one of the Paris gunmen traveled to Yemen to train with al-Qaeda.

"The French government has not yet contacted us on the matter," the Yemeni diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic relations, told BuzzFeed News.

Both U.S. and French officials have claimed that Said Kouachi, a 34-year-old believed to be one of the two gunmen who killed 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo office on Wednesday, traveled to Yemen at some point in 2011. When he arrived in the country, where he went, and who he met with remain unclear.

Some of the hostages and the gunman in the kosher grocery have died, police officials told multiple media outlets.

Police killed Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, wanted for the Charlie Hebdo massacre, in a siege of the hostage scene, the head of National Police told Le Monde.

About six explosions were heard at the kosher deli to the east of Paris, Sky News reported.

Gunfire and explosions are audible on Sky TV in Demmartin-en-Goele, where the Charlie Habdo assailants are allegedly holding a hostage and are surrounded by police.

According to a Le Parisien article from 2009, Amedi Coulibaly, a suspect in the shooting death a police officer south of Paris, met then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy:

It was in July of that year. Sarkozy was meeting with 10 young workers, including Coulibaly, who was then working at a Coca-Cola factory in Grigny, the town south of Paris where he was born and grew up, according to the article.

Coulibaly, who was 27 at the time, is said to have nine sisters and to be the only boy, according to the article. He said in the interview that he was happy to meet with Sarkozy and he was supposed to bring back pictures and autographs to his family. He said that where he is from "Sarkozy is really not popular," like most politicians, he said. He added, "meeting him in real life is impressive. Whether you like him or not, he is still the president," he said.

The incident at the Trocadero subway station was a false alarm, according to several media outlets citing French officials. Trains are running again.

Le Monde reports on the similar backgrounds of a Charlie Hebdo attack suspect and a suspect in the fatal attack on a police officer outside Paris:

Le Monde reported that Chérif Kouachi, named as a suspect in the Charlie Hebdo attack, and Amedy Coulibaly, 33, named as a suspect in the police officer's shooting south of France, were the two main "disciples" of Djamel Beghal, an al Qaeda terrorist who was released from a 10-year prison sentence in 2010.

Hayat Boumeddiene, 22, is Coulibaly's girlfriend, Le Monde reported. After his release from prison, Coulibaly was living at her house, Le Monde reported sources as saying.

Here is what we know right now about the situation at the kosher grocery:

A hostage situation is underway at a kosher deli near Port de Vincennes in eastern Paris, French officials said. The gunman is armed with an automatic rifle, a police official told the Associated Press.

President Francois Hollande ordered the top security officials to the scene, according to the Associated Press. Schools in the nearby area went into lockdown and some roads have been shut down.

Officials are trying to determine whether the hostage-taker is responsible for killing a policewoman in southern Paris, Thursday morning, according to France 24.

Translation:

We ask all people with information that could locate the two individuals photographed below to get in touch with the police.

These people, suspected to be armed and dangerous, have an arrest warrant issued against them in the the investigation of the murder committed with terrorist purpose on the Jan 8, 2015 at Avenue Pierre Brossolette in Montrouge.

It was not immediately clear if the two suspects are involved in either of the hostage situations near Paris today.

There is reportedly an ongoing shooting incident at a kosher deli just east of Paris, police sources told multiple media outlets. At least one person is reportedly injured.

Translation: "The president supervises the operations in the "situation room" of the Interior Ministry"

One of the Kouachi brothers met with a leading al-Qaeda preacher when he traveled to Yemen in 2011, according to reports.

Said Kouachi, 34, met Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent al-Qaeda preacher, when he traveled to Yemen to train with an al-Qaeda affiliate, Reuters reported.

U.S.-born Awlaki played a key role in spreading the terrorist group's teachings in Europe and among English-speakers. He was killed in September 2011 in a drone strike.

Translation:

"A shooting next to my school! We're locked in the high school and forbidden from leaving"

Translation:

"It's 5 min from my house — shit! I woke up with a start. Everyone is sending me messages. I'm staying home!"

Translation:

"We were never as together in high school as we were today"

Entrance roads to the town have been blocked off, Sky News TV reported.

By the early hours of Friday morning, however, no police sighting of the brothers had been confirmed.

CNN reported said investigators believed the brothers may have entered a wooded area on foot. Helicopters equipped with night vision tools flew over the area.

U.S. authorities say one of the suspects trained with al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The New York Times reported Said Kouachi had spent several months in 2011 receiving military training from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), according to an unnamed senior U.S. official.

The 34-year-old spent "a few months" receiving terrorist weapons and combat training that he apparently utilized during the massacre on Charlie Hebdo, the official said, but it was not clear if the al-Qaeda cell ordered the attack.

CNN reported that one of the brothers may have also gone to Syria within the last year.

"I couldn't save them," a Charlie Hebdo columnist, who arrived at the office minutes after the attack, told AFP.

Patrick Pelloux, who would have usually been at the editorial meeting during which the attack took place, was away at another meeting in Paris when he got a call from the Charlie Hebdo office.

"I was at this meeting when Jean Luc, the graphic artist called me to tell me: 'You have to come here quickly, they have shot at us with a Kalashnikov,'" an emotional Pelloux told AFP. "I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. When I arrived it was dreadful."

He arrived at the office three minutes after the attack while the gunmen were still shooting at people on the street. A fire department official with him triggered the emergency response.

A Department of Justice official told BuzzFeed News that Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to Paris, saying:

In the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to Paris, France, to attend an International Ministerial meeting on Sunday, January 11, 2014, convened by the French Minister of Interior. The meetings will include discussions on addressing terrorist threats, foreign fighters and countering violent extremism.

Maisie Dubosarsky's boyfriend, Simon Fieschi, works at Charlie Hebdo. Dubosarsky, 27, who lives in Paris, was visiting family in Sydney when she read a headline about the massacre that killed 12 people. Knowing there are about 20 people in the office at any given time, she immediately thought her boyfriend was one of those killed.

"I just thought he was dead," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "How am I going to deal with him being dead?"

About 30 minutes later, Fieschi's mother emailed Dubosarsky telling her Fieschi was alive but severely injured.

Fieschi, 31, was shot through the shoulder. The bullet perforated his lung and ricocheted off his vertebrae. He's undergone surgery, but the extent of his injuries will be known only after he wakes up from a coma, Dubosarsky said. She is on her way to Paris and is expected to be there by Friday morning.

Fieschi started working at Charlie Hebdo shortly after the office was attacked in 2011. His responsibilities include handling the newspaper's social media accounts and reception, Dubosarsky told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Dubosarsky said she has met a number of her boyfriend's colleagues and that they were passionate about free speech and political satire.

Read this to get caught up quickly on the developments in the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.

Classmates of Mourad Hamyd, the 18-year-old man who turned himself in to authorities last night, took to Twitter to claim his innocence.

The Guardian pointed out that the hashtag #MouradHamydInnocent was trending on Twitter as French students say Hamyd was in class with them at the time gunmen opened fire in the Charlie Hebdo offices.

The next edition of Charlie Hebdo, to be published Wednesday, will have a run of 1 million copies. The usual circulation is 45,000, the publication's lawyer, Richard Malka, told The Guardian.

Villefranche's mayor, Bernard Perrut, said that the restaurant is "run independently by people close to the mosque" and is "where people who frequent the mosque gather, but also others."

"This situation is worrying and upsetting," Perrut said.

There are many conflicting reports about the police officer who was shot dead in southern Paris:

Agnes Thibeaud, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office in Paris, told NBC News that police don't think the shooting is part of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.