France On Terror Alert As Gunmen In Paris Kill 10 Journalists And 2 Cops

Al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris, saying it was punishing the magazine for its cartoons and France for its policies in the Muslim world.

The Jan. 7 assault was ordered by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor as al-Qaeda chief, one of the group’s leaders said in a video message posted on social media today. The U.S. said the video appears to be authentic.

“Congratulations to you, O Ummah of Islam, for this vengeance,” Nasr bin Ali Alanesi said, referring to the worldwide Muslim community. “This is France, that has taken part in all of America’s crimes. This is France, that has committed crimes in Mali and the Maghreb. This is France, that is supporting the extermination of Muslims in central Africa.” He also said the attack was a response to caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published by Charlie Hebdo.

If the claim of direct responsibility holds up, it would make the attacks in France the deadliest planned and financed by Al Qaeda on Western soil since the transit bombings in London in 2005 that killed 52 people. And it would serve as a reminder of the continued danger from the group at a time when much of the attention of Europe and the United States has shifted to the Islamic State, the militant organization that controls large swaths of Syria and Iraq and has become notorious for beheading hostages.

nytimes.com

The deadly controversy over a French satirical newspaper’s decision to publish images of the prophet Muhammad entered a volatile new phase Tuesday, with Islamic authorities condemning the newest cartoon and the paper’s surviving staff offering a passionate defense of work completed in the shadow of a massacre.

Nearly a week after several of Charlie Hebdo’s top editors, writers and cartoonists were executed in their office, an emotional Renald Luzier — who was only spared because he was late for work last Wednesday — described his depiction of Muhammad as “nicer than the terrorists’ Muhammad.”

Luzier’s rendering shows the prophet shedding a tear and holding one of the country’s now-ubiquitous “Je Suis Charlie” signs beneath a headline reading “All Is Forgiven.”

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But even before the image hit French newsstands Wednesday, on the cover of an edition expected to sell as many as 3 million copies, Islamic authorities warned of a potentially violent backlash.

Dar al-Ifta, Egypt’s highest authority for religious edicts, issued a statement calling the cartoon “unjustifiably provocative to the feelings of a billion and a half Muslims worldwide who love and respect the Prophet.” The statement called on the French government to condemn the newspaper’s “racist act which works to incite sectarianism.”

Among extremist sympathizers online, calls for violence had already begun Tuesday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors radical Web postings. One Twitter user wrote: “They want a car bomb this time.”

Suspects in two terror attacks in Paris were killed in twin police raids today, ending three days of intense drama following the deadliest such assault in the country in half a century.

Seventeen people, including four hostages taken today at a kosher grocery, were killed by the suspected Islamist terrorists in three discrete yet connected incidents in the French capital. With shots fired in quiet Parisian streets, car chases and hostage-taking, the city was gripped by tension.

“We will come out of this stronger,” President Francois Hollande said in a televised address to the nation. “We are a free people that won’t give in to pressure, that isn’t afraid.”

The raids, led by heavily armed elite police units, unfolded nearly simultaneously on the eastern edge of Paris and north of the city — at a printing plant where the two brothers of Algerian descent suspected in the newspaper attack held a hostage, and at a kosher supermarket where an armed associate of African origin had lined the place with explosives and threatened to kill the shoppers at his mercy.

In a solemn address to the nation Friday evening, President François Hollande called this week’s violence, the worst spasm of terrorism in France since the 1954-62 Algerian War, the work of “madmen, fanatics” who had created “a tragedy for the nation that we were obliged to confront.”

nytimes.com

The crises deeply shocked the nation, exposed gaping holes in state security and heightened the ethnic, religious and political tensions that, particularly in recent years, have festered in the French republic. The brothers, in particular, were well known to French intelligence agencies, raising serious questions about how they could have fallen off the national radar so completely.

“There was a failing, of course,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on BFM television late Friday. “When 17 people are killed, this means there was a failing,” he added, citing the three-day death toll.

The Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, France yesterday could be a backlash against the French satirical magazine's provocation towards Islam, said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said that Charlie Hebdo frequently showed disrespect towards Muslims by making fun of Prophet Muhammad through their caricature drawings.

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"Do they need to make fun of Prophet Muhammad even when they know it hurts Muslims. We respect their religion and they must respect ours," he was quoted as saying by Bernama today.

According to the national news agency, Dr Mahathir was asked to comment on the attack where three gunmen with Kalashnikov automatic rifles and a rocket-launcher opened fire at the Charlie Hebdo offices yesterday and killed 12 people, including two policemen.

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Dr Mahathir, who is the country's longest-serving prime minister, said that no one should provoke another religion as society should learn to respect one another despite being of different religions and races.

He was also reported as saying that there were non-Muslims who were afraid of Islam and imagined it to be an inconsiderate and ruthless religion because of what is shown on the Internet, such as the unrest in the Middle East.

"If they understand the teachings of al-Quran itself, they will not be afraid of Islam and Muslims," he added.

"We stand in unity with the French people. We must fight extremism with moderation," he said in his Twitter account.

Wisma Putra also echoed Najib's call, saying that nothing justified taking innocent lives amid the most deadly militant attack in the country in decades.

In a statement today, the Foreign Ministry said Malaysia was standing united with France, its people and especially with the families of the victims.

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PKR's Goo Hsiao Leung said the gruesome act of violence was committed to create a climate of hatred, fear and division among people of different faiths and religions of the world.

"It is totally incomprehensible and pure madness to target a newspaper for publishing cartoons and commit cold-blooded murder in the name of religion. Malaysia stands in solidarity with the people of France and the rest of the world in sending a clear and firm message in condemning and denouncing extremism," said the Alor Setar MP.

"On behalf of PKR, we offer our condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and pray for the recovery of those who have been injured in the senseless and tragic attack," said Gooi.

Standing in solidarity with the French people, Bukit Bendera DAP MP Zairil Khir Johari said nothing justifies extremism, although many would not agree to the magazine's "often questionable satire".

"There is nothing that justifies extremism, much less cold-blooded murder, especially against media practitioners. Such an act of barbarity goes against not only the universal values of humanity, but also the fundamental values of Islam as a religion of peace," he said in a statement.

"Masked gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar!" stormed the Paris offices of a satirical newspaper Wednesday, killing 12 people before escaping. It was France's deadliest terror attack in at least two decades."

nytimes.com

The three men - described by a police union spokesman as “commandos” – are on the run after walking into the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris’s 11th arrondissement at about midday on Wednesday and fleeing in a getaway car driven by a fourth.

The death toll includes 10 journalists and two police officers. At least five people are seriously injured.

theguardian.com

“About a half an hour ago, two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs,” the witness, Benoît Bringer, told the station.

“A few minutes later, we heard lots of shots,” he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.

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He told France Inter: “I am shocked that people can have attacked a newspaper in France, a secular republic. I don’t understand it.

“I don’t understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war.”

Biard said he did not believe the attack was linked to the magazine’s latest front page, which featured novelist Michel Houellebecq, who has previously sparked controversy with comments about Islam.

And he said the magazine had not received threats of violence: “Not to my knowledge, and I don’t think anyone had received them as individuals, because they would have talked about it. There was no particular tension at the moment.”

theguardian.com

The magazine describes itself on the social network as the ‘irresponsible newspaper’. Its cover this week features the provocative new novel by Michel Houellebecq, Submission, which satirises France under a Muslim president.

Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, has received death threats and lives under police protection. He has always insisted that the cartoons depicting the prophet were harmless fun, although he is well aware that Islam does not allow public images of Muhammad, which are believed by Muslims to be sacrilegious.

Charbonnier, an artist and caricaturist, has been Charlie Hebdo editor since 2009.

The headquarters of Charlie Hebdo are located close to the offices of the leftwing daily Libération in eastern Paris. In November 2013, a gunman attacked the newspaper’s offices, critically injuring a photographer.

theguardian.com

They are the magazine’s editor and cartoonist, Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb; Bernard Maris, an economist and writer on the board of Charlie Hebdo; and three more cartoonists: Jean Cabu, Georges Wolinski and Bernard Verlhac, known as Tignous.

Five other staff at the magazine are believed to be among the 12 dead.

Also killed were two police officers. They have not yet been named.

theguardian.com