Massive Manhunt for Killers in French Magazine Massacre
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – French security forces on Thursday launched a massive manhunt for two brothers suspected of killing 12 people in an attack on a satirical weekly in Paris, the deadliest attack in France in half a century.
The attack triggered an international outpouring of solidarity, with demonstrations spreading from Moscow to Washington, as world leaders and other media including newspaper cartoonists united in their revulsion of the daylight assault.
President Francois Hollande called the massacre -- thought to be the worst attack on French soil since 1961 -- "an act of exceptional barbarity" and "undoubtedly a terrorist attack".
In the hunt for the attackers, police published pictures of the wanted men in an urgent appeal for information as a manhunt stretched long into the night with a raid by elite anti-terror police in the northern city of Reims.
An 18-year-old suspected of being an accomplice in the attack at the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo magazine was taken into custody after surrendering to police in a small town in the same region as Reims, AFP reported.
A source close to the case said Hamyd Mourad surrendered after "seeing his name circulating on social media".
But the masked, black-clad gunmen, who killed some of France's most outspoken journalists as well as two policemen, were still on the loose.
Arrest warrants had been issued for Cherif Kouachi, 32, a known militant convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq, and his 34-year-old brother Said. Both were born in Paris.
Search-and-seizure operations took place in Strasbourg and towns near Paris, while in Reims police commandos carried out a raid on a building later scoured by white-clad forensic police.
The magazine’s office was burned 3 years ago in response to its publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).
In November 2011, Charlie Hebdo’s offices caught fire the day it was due to publish a cover making fun of Islamic law.
