Here’s a map showing where the “major operation” is underway.
Updated
A BBC correspondent in the area reports seeing five helicopters above an industrial area on the edge of Dammartin-en-Goele.
There are unconfirmed reports that the suspects have occupied the offices of a construction company. Reports of hostages being taken are also unconfirmed, but a siege appears to be underway.
Updated
A hostage taking is under way in a business in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, near Charles de Gaulle airport, Le Figaro reports. At least one person is believed to have been taken by the suspects.
Earlier, the suspects hijacked a grey Peugeot after abandoning their hijacked Renault Clio, which reportedly had run out of petrol.
.@BCazeneuve : «Une opération est en cours à #DammartinenGoele » #traque #CharlieHebdo http://t.co/lGFj3d5XJB pic.twitter.com/fdpClIis8t
— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) January 9, 2015
Updated
‘Major operation’ confirmed
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has confirmed that a major operation is underway in Dammartin-en-Goele where police helicopters have been deployed.
Bernard Cazeneuve : “une opération est en cours à Dammartin-en-Goële, le GIGN se rend sur place” http://t.co/ursrK4Wk9b
— itele (@itele) January 9, 2015
Three helicopters deployed
Three helicopters have been deployed over the town Dammartin-en-Goele 40km north-east of Paris, according to Le Figaro.
DERNIÈRE MINUTE – 3 hélicoptères sont mobilisés à #DammartinEnGoele #traque #CharlieHebdo http://t.co/2A0s2WxBmZ pic.twitter.com/ObUbpLfUZq
— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) January 9, 2015
‘Shots fired’ and ‘hostages taken’ in manhunt
There are unconfirmed reports that shots have been fired and hostages taken in the manhunt for the Kouachi brothers.
Shots fired on road where Charlie Hebdo killers spotted http://t.co/TlM5hCkACA
— RFI English (@RFI_English) January 9, 2015
#BREAKING Hostages taken north-east of Paris: police
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) January 9, 2015
Meanwhile AP reports that the suspects have stolen another car. It cites a security source.
BREAKING: French security source: Suspects in newspaper shooting stole car, on move again
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 9, 2015
The Guardian’s al-Qaida expert Jason Burke, has more on Cherif Kouachi’s reported links with the terrorist network.
Djamal Beghal is the Algerian-born French militant who reportedly became Cherif Kouachi’s mentor in prison in 2005 and 2006 France when the suspected Charlie-Hebdo attacker was detained for his involvement in a network funnelling volunteers to fight the US in Iraq alongside al-Qaida.
He is also an example of how the now long-forgotten violent struggles of the early 1990s in many Islamic countries against militants still have an impact 20 years or more later, and how extremism continues to function through personal rather than organisational links.
Beghal had come to France in the mid 1980s from Algeria, married a French woman, gained citizenship and lived in a run-down towerblock on the outskirts of Paris. Active in militant circles since the beginning of the civil war in Algeria in 1992, he was picked up by French police on suspicion of membership of the brutal Algerian outfit, the Groupe Islamique Armée (GIA), in or around 1995.
In 1997 Beghal and his family moved to Britain, settling in Leicester. Beghal told interrogators in Dubai – in a confession that he later said was extracted under torture – that his aim was to merely to study with the London-based Jordanian radical cleric Abu Qutada whose taped lectures he had frequently heard in France.
Abu Qutada encouraged his admirer to distribute texts and tapes of his speeches across the Channel. “Abu Qutada never asked me to set up a network for him in France but just to spread his message,” Beghal said in his interrogation. French investigators did not believe this is the truth.
During this time Beghal spent time at the Finsbury Park mosque, then under the influence of Abu Hamza. Extradited from the UK, Hamza was convicted in the US last year of 11 charges of instigating terrorist acts.
In 1998 Beghal and his spiritual mentor discussed the duty of hijra, the flight of the faithful from impious lands, he told investigators. Afghanistan was mentioned as a possible destination.
In the autumn of 2000, Beghal travelled to Afghanistan where he underwent basic training at a camp run by bin Laden’s associates near Kabul.
Investigators believed he made the journey specifically to seek help from al-Qaida with a plan to blow up the US embassy in Paris. Beghal said the idea was al-Qaida’s.
In the spring of 2001 Beghal told his interrogators he was contacted by an aide of Osama bin Laden.
“He told me that the time for action had come and asked me if I was ready. I said I was and he said that the plan was to blow up the US embassy in Paris. He gave me three presents: a stick of niswak (wood used for cleaning teeth), a bottle of perfume and a prayer cap. He said they were from bin Laden. He told me that 350,000 Francs ($55,000) had been placed in a bank account in Morocco for me.”
Beghal claimed he had been radicalised in the Afghan camps but before that he had shunned violence. However he was convicted by a French court after being arrested in August 2001 and sentenced to ten years in prison.
It was there that he met Cherif Kouachi and appears to have played a role familiar to intelligence services working to counter Islamic militancy – of the older veteran who reinforces and channels a younger man’s existing extremist tendencies – much as Qatada or bin Laden may have done for him.
#CharlieHebdo > Les liens de Chérif Kouachi avec le terrorisme http://t.co/t7DY5Os18W pic.twitter.com/cVQE9gflZG
— itele (@itele) January 9, 2015
In Britain Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, has backed MI5’s call for snooping powers in the wake of Wednesday’s killings.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Rifkind said:
I do entirely endorse what’s been said by Sir Andrew Parker, the head of MI5, that the evidence suggests that terrorist threat in the UK is as serious as it has ever been … As Mr Parker pointed out the intelligence agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to be able to intercept communications between terrorists and people they are working with.
What is emerging in Paris is that the two individual responsible for the terrible massacre at Charlie Hebdo were communicating with people in the Yemen over the last days, last few weeks.
The hugely important objective is to enable intelligence agencies to be able to get hold of these communications to try to prevent incidents of this kind …
What we are talking about is ensuring that they have the technical capability and the legal authority to use modern methods to target, to find individuals who may be plotting serious crime …
We know from Paris that these individuals were already on the radar screen.
What’s at issue is whether the communication companies … should be required to keep records so that if at any stage there is a need to consider interception it can be done under lawful authority.
Updated
Islamic State praises attackers as heros
The Islamic State group, which control large parts of Iraq and Syria, has praised the gunmen behind the Charlie Hebdo killings as “heroic jihadists”.
Citing the monitoring monitoring group Site Intelligence, Reuters reports:
Site 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.
IS Regards Charlie Hebdo Gunmen as “Heroic Jihadists” in Audio Bulletin http://t.co/0O2vdXXdHT
— SITE Intel Group (@siteintelgroup) January 8, 2015
Summary
Welcome to the third day of our live coverage of the aftermath of the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris as a massive manhunt for the two suspected gunmen continues.
Here’s a summary of the latest developments
- Tens of thousands of French troops have joined the police hunt for the suspects which is currently focused on large wooded area north east of Paris. Police have deployed sniffer dogs, heat seeking cameras and helicopters around the towns of Longpont and Villers-Cotterêts in the Aisne region, close to where the suspect brothers were reported to have robbed a petrol station.
- More details have emerged about what counter terrorist authorities knew about the suspects, Chérif Kouachi, 32, and Saïd Kouachi, 34. The French justice minister that Said Kouachi had travelled to Yemen, where US officials said he had trained with al-Qaeda. Both brothers were also on a US no-fly list. Chérif Kouachi was arrested trying to travel to Iraq in 2005 and later imprisoned for helping to channel fighters to Iraq.
- While in prison Cherif Kouachi is reported to have met key al-Qaida operative, Djamel Beghal, who is alleged to have recruited shoe bomber, Richard Reid. A photograph has emerged purporting to show Cherif Kouachi alongside Beghal.
- A rally against the attack is planned for Paris on Sunday. Officials have announced the exclusion of Marine Le Pen and her National Front.
- Surviving journalists at Charlie Hebdo magazine are being offered help to continue publishing the magazine after they confirmed plans to print a million copies of next week’s edition. The French culture minister called for the release of 1m euros to sustain Charlie Hebdo. Donations have been pledged by the Guardian and Google as the French media launched a fundraising drive. The French paper Libération said it would host Charlie Hebdo for the production of forthcoming issues.
- Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has signalled plans to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the prophet Muhammad which appear to have prompted the attack. British media outlets, including the Guardian, have been defending their decision not to reprint the cartoons.
- The head of Britain’s security agency MI5 has called for more powers to deal with growing threat of terrorists in the wake of Wednesday’s attack. Andrew Parker said: “My sharpest concern is the growing gap between the increasingly challenging threat and the decreasing availability of capabilities to address it.”
You can catch up on our previous live blog here.
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Charlie Hebdo: 'major operation' north-east of Paris in hunt for suspects – live updates
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