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Paris shooting updates / Fatalities reported, hostage taken northeast of Paris- Dammartin-En-Goele



Paris shooting updates / Fatalities reported, hostage taken northeast of Paris

Manhunt for brothers continues in northern France; Charlie Hebdo to print 1 million copies next week; Obama makes unannounced visit French embassy to pay respects.


Police officers control the access to Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, January 9, 2015. Photo by AP
At least one hostage was seized in a town northeast of Paris on Friday during a huge manhunt for two brothers suspected of killing 12 people at a satirical weekly, according to a police source.


Five helicopters were seen flying over an industrial zone outside the town of Dammartin-en-Goele and the French Interior Minister confirmed an operation was taking place there. A police source said the two suspects had been sighted in the town, where at least one person was taken hostage.
Before night fell on Thursday, officers had been focusing on their search some 40 km (25 miles) away on the woodland village of Corcy, not far from a service station where police sources said the brothers had been sighted in ski masks a day after the shootings at the newspaper.
The fugitive suspects are French-born sons of Algerian-born parents, both in their early 30s, and already under police surveillance. One was jailed for 18 months for trying to travel to Iraq a decade ago to fight as part of an Islamist cell. Police said they were "armed and dangerous".
Charlie Hebdo, where journalists were gunned down during an editorial meeting, had been firebombed in the past for printing cartoons that poked fun at militant Islam and some that mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
Two of those killed were police posted to protect the paper. 
Live updates
12:06 P.M. An airport spokesman said the flight diversions are not affecting schedules.
At least three helicopters are hovering above the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, near to the airport. (AP)
11:45 A.M. French interior minister: "Almost certain" that hostage-takers are the two Charlie Hebdo suspects. (Reuters)
11:41 A.M. The two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack are holding one hostage, police sources tell AFP. (Haaretz)
11:30 A.M. Two runways at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport have been closed as a precautionary measure in light of developments in Dammartin-en-Goele. (Haaretz)
11:20 A.M. Paris prosecutor's office denies report that one person killed in shootout in Dammartin-en-Goele. (Reuters)
11:11 A.M. Said Kouachi visited Yemen in 2011 for religious studies, according to a senior Yemeni intelligence source.
While in Yemen, he met with late Al-Qaida preacher Anwar Al Alwaqi. (Reuters)
11:10 A.M. Negotiations have started with the two suspects, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.
11:04 A.M. One person killed, several injured in shootout ahead of hostage taking in Dammartin-En-Goele, according to French media. (Reuters)
10:48 A.M. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve separately confirms a police operation was underway in Dammartin-en-Goele, some 40 km (25 miles) from the site of where police had been hunting the two suspects on Thursday.
10:42 A.M .The two suspects stole a Peugeot on Friday morning in the town of Montagny Sainte Felicite, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Paris, police official says.
10:35 A.M. Hostages have been taken northeast of Paris, according to AFP.
10:27 A.M. Shots fired in car chase northeast of Paris
Gunshots rang out on Friday in the French town of Dammartin-en- Goele, some 40 km (25 miles) from the scene of where police had been hunting two suspects in the killings of 12 people at a satirical weekly, a police source said.
The source added that police were now chasing a vehicle on the nearby A2 motorway. (Reuters)
9:40 A.M. ISIS praises Charlie Hebdo attackers as "heroic jihadists"
The Islamic State militant group praised the gunmen behind this week's killings at the Paris headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo weekly newspaper as "heroic jihadists", a monitoring group said on Friday.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors radical Islamist organisations in the media, said Islamic State praised the gunmen in a brief note in its daily audio bulletin, which was distributed on Twitter and jihadi forums on Thursday.
"We start our bulletin with France. Heroic jihadists killed 12 journalists and wounded ten others working in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, and that was support for our master (Prophet) Mohammad, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him," according to the audio bulletin. (Reuters)
1:47 A.M. Obama visits French embassy to pay respects
President Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to the French Embassy in Washington on Thursday to pay his respects and express solidarity with the French people.
Obama wrote in a condolences book that he extended U.S. sympathy and solidarity to the French people. "As allies across the centuries, we stand united with our French brothers to ensure that justice is done and our way of life is defended. We go forward together knowing that terror is no match for freedom and ideals we stand for - ideals that light the world," he wrote. (Reuters)
00:57 A.M. Charlie Hebdo to print 1 million copies next week
Charlie Hebdo will publish its next edition on Wednesday, a lawyer for the French satirical magazine told the AFP news agency, despite the deadly shooting at its Paris headquarters.
One million copies will be printed, lawyer Richard Malka said, far above the magazine's usual circulation that numbers in the tens of thousands. Read full article here
00:56 A.M. Manhunt to continue overnight with five helicopters, French police says
Le Monde reported that police has given no new information on the manhunt for the suspects around the village of Longpont, northern France. The search will continue with the aid of five helicopters overnight, a police officer said according to AFP.  
00:17 A.M. Brothers were on U.S. no-fly list for years, unnamed sources say
Cherif and Said Kouachi, brothers suspected of the Paris attack, had been on a U.S. no-fly list for years, and were on a database of terrorists called TIDE, unnamed U.S. officials are cited as saying by U.S. media.
00:13 A.M. American official: Said Kouachi trained with Al-Qaida in Yemen
An unnamed American official told CNN the U.S. has received information from the French intelligence service that Said Kouachi traveled to Yemen in 2011, where he trained with Al-Qaida militants. According to the official, the training included firearm usage, and possibly bomb making as well. In addition, a French intelligence source told CNN the possibility is examined that one of the brothers – it's unclear which – visited Syria last year.
00:05 A.M. Canada's Harper: Jihadists have declared war, world must respond
The deadly attacks in Paris serve as a vivid reminder that jihadists are at war with those they disagree with, and the world must confront them, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday.
"The international jihadist movement has declared war. They have declared war on anybody who does not think and act exactly as they wish they'd think and act," Harper told reporters when asked about Wednesday's attack.
"We may not like this and wish it would go away, but it's not going to go away, and the reality is we are going to have to confront it."
Harper spoke as a manhunt was underway in France for two brothers suspected of being the Islamist gunmen who killed 12 people in Wednesday's attack on a satirical weekly newspaper in Paris.
Harper said any doubts in Canada about the reality of threats posed by such extremists should have vanished on Oct. 22. That was the day when a radicalized Canadian gunman killed a soldier at the national war memorial and then stormed the Parliament building. (Reuters) 

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