An attack on the Paris headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine has left at least 12 people dead, including the Jewish caricaturist Georges Wolinski.
Footage from the scene of Wednesdays attack posted on the French news website JSSnews.com shows two heavily armed men exiting a black car and shooting a rifle at a police officer near the building. One of the masked assailants then approaches the officer and shoots him in the head.
Ten people also were wounded in the attack; four are in serious condition.
Two of the reported fatalities were police officers, according to the French daily Le Monde.
In addition to Wolinski, three of the victims have been named: Stephane Carbonnier, publishing director at Charlie Hebdo; Jean Cabut, lead cartoonist; and Bernard Verlhac, collaborating cartoonist.
The identities of all of the victims have not yet been made known.
Read related IJN editorial, “Truth is their worst enemy“
Charlie Hebdo, which regularly runs articles and caricatures critical of religion, has published a series of satirical cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
The assailants had cried out Allah is the greatest in Arabic and that their attack was to avenge the prophet, Le Monde reported. They reportedly fled in a hijacked car, running over a pedestrian and shooting at officers.
A reporter for the UKs Daily Telegraph in Paris said that the first two officers to arrive fled after seeing gunmen armed with automatic weapons and possibly a rocket launcher.
France24 reported that cartoonist Corine Rey, who was held at gunpoint, said she was the one who let the gunmen into the offices of Charlie Hebdo. They shot Wolinski, Cabut…It lasted about five mintes…I took cover under a desk. They spoke perfect French [and] said they were Al Qaida.
As yet, no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS encourages jihadists not to wear masks during the attacks to show they are not ashamed of their actions. The suspected terrorists in Paris were masked.
Following a manhunt, French officials identified the gunmen as brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both in their early 30s, and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad.
Mourad is said to have surrendered to authorities overnight; the brothers were killed in a shootout on January 9 in Dammartin-en-Goele, north east of Paris, after being surrounded by French authorities.
WOLINSKI, 81, a French Jew who was born in Tunisia and moved to France at 13, has worked at leading publications such as LHumanite, Le Nouvel Observateur and Paris Match.
Wolinski, 80, a Tunisia native who moved to France as a teenager, also was a cartoonist at the
Its clear that this was a planned attack against Wolinski and the other cartoon artists, said Richard Kenigsman, a well-known Jewish caricaturist and painter from Brussels.
He cited an attack and multiple threats against Charlie Hebdo since 2006 for publishing caricatures deemed offensive to Islam.
French President Francois Hollande, speaking live near the scene of the shooting, said it was a terrorist attack, adding that France is today in shock.
Charlie Hebdo, he added, was threatened several times in the past and we need to show we are a united country. He also vowed that French authorities will punish the attackers. We will look for the people responsible.
In a statement, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor called the attack part of the beginning of a wave of terror on the streets of Europe and a war against freedom of speech and the European way of life which has already seen Jewish children gunned down at school and people murdered in cold blood while visiting a museum in Brussels.
A car explosion outside a synagogue in Sarcelles, France was reported hours after the Paris shootings.
Mayor Francois Pupponi of Sarcelles, a heavily Jewish suburb of Paris, said the fire that erupted Wednesday afternoon was accidental. Some reports said the car caught fire due to a mechanical error.
The French news website JSSNews reported and posted photos showing that the car was located directly in front of the Synagogue of Garges-Les-Gonesse in an area where cars are not permitted to park.
Sammy Ghozlan, president of the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, said in a statement that France must wake up to the danger of Islamism and the terror it brings all over the world: In Paris, Toulouse, Sarcelles, Brussels, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, jihadists are acting on the same radical Islamist ideology that is used to manipulate them.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sent his condolences to the French people and said that Israel sympathizes with Frances pain after the attack, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The terror alert in the metro Paris area was raised to its highest level. All media outlets, departments stores, places of worship and transport were to receive reinforced security, the prime ministers office said in a statement.
According to Le Journal du Dimanche, the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices is the deadliest terrorist attack to have taken place in France since 1961, when 28 people were killed in a train bombing carried out by a group opposed to the independence of Algeria.
Spontaneous vigils and gatherings in public squares were taking place on January 7 across France. A national day of mourning was called for January 8.
