French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces were hunting for three gunmen after the noon-time attack on the weekly Charlie Hebdo, whose caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed have frequently drawn condemnation from Muslims.
French President Francois Hollande called the slayings ”a terrorist attack without a doubt” and said several other attacks have been thwarted in France ”in recent weeks.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
France raised its security alert to the highest level and reinforced protective measures at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation. Top government officials held an emergency meeting and Hollande planned a nationally televised address in the evening. Schools across the French capital closed their doors.
World leaders including President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack, but supporters of the militant Islamic State group celebrated the slayings as well-deserved revenge against France.
The Islamic State group has repeatedly threatened to attack France. Just minutes before the attack, Charlie Hebdo had tweeted a satirical cartoon of that extremist group’s leader giving New Year’s wishes. Another cartoon, released in this week’s issue and entitled ”Still No Attacks in France,” had a caricature of an extremist fighter saying ”Just wait – we have until the end of January to present our New Year’s wishes.”
The 12 dead included two men who went by the pen names: Charb – the editor and a cartoonist as well – and the cartoonist Cabu, spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre of the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed.
Two police officers were also among the dead, including one assigned as Charb’s bodyguard after prior death threats against him, a police official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
Just before noon, multiple masked men armed with automatic weapons attacked the newspaper’s office in central Paris, nearby worker Benoit Bringer told the iTele network. The attackers went to the second floor and started firing indiscriminately in the newsroom, said Christophe DeLoire of Reporters Without Borders.
”This is the darkest day of the history of the French press,” DeLoire said.
Video images on the website of public broadcaster France Televisions showed two gunmen in black at a crossroads who appeared to fire down one of the streets. A cry of ”Allahu akbar!” – Arabic for ”God is great”- could be heard among the gunshots.
Luc Poignant of the SBP police union said the attackers left in a waiting car and later switched to another vehicle that had been stolen.
Obama’s top spokesman said U.S. officials have been in close contact with the French since the attack. ”We know they are not going to be cowed by this terrible act,” spokesman Josh Earnest said.
On social media, supporters of militant Islamic groups praised the move. One Twitter user who identified themselves as a Tunisian loyalist of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group called the attack well-deserved revenge against France.
Elsewhere on the Internet, the hashtag (hash)JeSuisCharlie was trending as people expressed support for weekly and for journalistic freedom.
Charlie Hebdo has been repeatedly threatened for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and other controversial sketches. Its offices were firebombed in 2011 after a spoof issue featuring a caricature of the prophet on its cover. Nearly a year later, the publication again published crude Muhammad caricatures, drawing denunciations from around the Muslim world.
Wednesday’s attack comes the same day of the release of a book by a celebrated French novelist depicting France’s election of its first Muslim president. Hollande had been due to meet with the country’s top religious officials later in the day.
French weekly has history of angering Muslims with cartoons
(AP) The French newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s staple is to be provocative – poking fun at popes, presidents as well as the Prophet Muhammad.
The satirical weekly attacked Wednesday by gunmen, killing at least 12, has a history of drawing outrage across the Muslim world with crude cartoons of Islam’s holiest figure. The magazine’s offices were firebombed in November 2011 after it published a spoof issue that ”invited” Muhammad to be its guest editor and put his caricature on the cover.
A year later, the magazine published more Muhammad drawings amid an uproar over an anti-Muslim film. The cartoons depicted Muhammad naked and in demeaning or pornographic poses. As passions raged, the French government defended free speech even as it rebuked Charlie Hebdo for fanning tensions.
The small-circulation weekly leans toward the left and takes pride in making acerbic commentary on world affairs through cartoons and spoof reports.
”We treat the news like journalists. Some use cameras, some use computers. For us, it’s a paper and pencil,” the Muhammad cartoonist, who goes by the name Luz, told The Associated Press in 2012. ”A pencil is not a weapon. It’s just a means of expression.”
Chief editor Stephane Charbonnier, who publishes under the pen name ”Charb,” has also defended the Muhammad cartoons.
”Muhammad isn’t sacred to me,” he told The AP in 2012. ”I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don’t live under Quranic law.”
Islam is not alone in being singled out by Charlie Hebdo’s satire. Past covers include retired Pope Benedict XVI in amorous embrace with a Vatican guard; former French President Nicolas Sarkozy looking like a sick vampire; and an Orthodox Jew kissing a Nazi soldier.
The magazine occasionally publishes investigative journalism, taking aim at France’s high and mighty.
Charlie Hebdo has come under pressure ever since its 2011 Muhammad issue. Its website has been hacked, and Charbonnier has needed police protection. Riot police guarded the magazine’s offices after the 2012 issue hit the stands.Obama spokesman: US stands with French in time of suffering President Barack Obama’s top spokesman says the United States is determined to help the French apprehend those responsible for the attack on a satirical Paris newspaper that left at least 12 people dead.
Press secretary Josh Earnest says U.S. officials have been in close contact with the French after the bloody attack today on the Charlie Hebdo weekly.
Earnest tells CNN the French have been ”stalwart allies” in the U.S. fight against Islamic State extremists. The spokesman also says, ”We know they are not going to be cowed by this terrible act.”
Earnest also says Washington will work hard to protect Americans at home and abroad.
He says, ”We obviously are trying to monitor what we consider to be a very important threat, which is the threat of foreign fighters.”
