1 terror suspect on loose as French hostage standoffs end

PARIS — Heavily armed police mounted simultaneous attacks on two hostage-standoffs about 30 miles apart on Friday, killing two terror suspects holed up in a warehouse north of Paris and a gunman who had seized hostages at a kosher supermarket in the capital.

Four people were killed when the supermarket gunman entered the store, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said. Sixteen hostages were freed, one from the warehouse and 15 others from the grocery. Several people — including two police officers — were reported wounded at the supermarket.

Police were still on the lookout for an associate of the terrorists, Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who police described as the common-law wife and accomplice of the supermarket gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, 32. Boumeddiene's whereabouts and link to the supermarket attack remain unknown, but she is considered armed and dangerous.

Family members of the slain terrorists are among several people who have been charged over the attacks, Molins said.

Hours after the sieges ended, al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen said it had "directed" the Wednesday massacre at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo "as revenge for the honor" of Islam's prophet, Mohammed, a member of AQAP in Yemen said in a statement to the Associated Press. The weekly paper has published cartoons lampooning Mohammed.

The attack reiterated the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's warnings to the West about "the consequences of the persistence in the blasphemy against Muslim sanctities," according to the statement.

But U.S. authorities said later they are reviewing the claim of responsibility, two U.S. officials told USA TODAY.

It was not immediately clear whether al-Qaeda actually directed and financed the attack or merely supported the gunmen, Said Kouachi and his younger brother, Cherif, said the officials, who are not authorized to comment publicly. The Kouachis died Friday in the warehouse shootout with police.

Witnesses had reported that as the masked gunmen fled the newspaper carnage, one shouted that al-Qaeda was responsible. Officials also said Said Kouachi had traveled to Yemen sometime in 2011 and trained with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Hours before dying with his brother, Cherif Kouachi told French broadcaster BFMTV on Friday that he was financed by a network loyal to al-Awlaki.

About the same time the AQAP statement was issued, one of the terror group's top religious figures said in a speech posted to YouTube that France would face more violence if it did not stop fighting Islam, its symbols and Muslims in general.

"Some of the sons of France were disrespectful to the prophets of Allah, so a group from among the believing soldiers of Allah marched unto them, then they taught them respect and the limit of the freedom of expression," according to a translation from the terror-monitoring SITE Institute. "Soldiers who love Allah and His messengers have come unto you, and they do not fear death but adore martyrdom in the cause of Allah."

In a brief address to the nation Friday night, French President Francois Hollande urged people to remain united and alert. Calling the grocery attack "a terrifying anti-Semitic act," he said the terrorists were "fanatics who have nothing to do with Islam."

"The threats facing France are not finished," he said. "We must be vigilant." But, he added, "we will come out of this challenge stronger."

Police confirmed the Kouachi brothers had been cornered in a printing warehouse in the village of Dammartin-en-Goele, and were killed in the operation that erupted with loud explosions, smoke and gunfire. At the same time, security forces in eastern Paris stormed the supermarket in Porte de Vincennes, killing Coulibaly.

The Kouachi brothers were the target of an intense, two-day manhunt after they killed 12 people -- eight journalists, two police officers, a maintenance worker and a visitor -- and wounded 11 others in the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

"They said they want to die as martyrs," Yves Albarello, a lawmaker who said he was inside the police command post in Dammartin-en-Goele, told French television station i-Tele.

The two suspects were killed after they emerged from their hideout and opened fire on police, according to the French BFMTV.

The coordinated police assaults came after Coulibaly had threatened to kill his hostages in the Paris market if police stormed the industrial park in Dammartin-en-Goele.

In a separate BFMTV interview before he died, Coulibaly said the two "operations" were carefully planned. Police say he and Boumeddiene began Thursday by murdering a policewoman and wounding another officer south of Paris.

"We were just synched from the beginning, which means when they started at Charlie Hebdo, I started to do the policemen," he said.

Coulibaly also said he was a member of the Islamic State, the extremist group that has taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Coulibaly and Chérif Kouachi knew each other, AFP reported, quoting a source close to the investigation.

The latest incidents left the country reeling and prompted Hollande to convene a crisis meeting with top government officials at the presidential palace.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls acknowledged in a TV interview that here had been "a failing" in intelligence, while the head of the police union said the attacks resulted from a "breakdown" either in law enforcement or the judicial system.

Security experts noted the difficulties in preventing attacks because of the several thousand potential terrorists on watch lists.

Hollande, in an apparent bid to head off a backlash toward French Muslims, called on citizens not to let the attacks by the terrorists divide the nation.

"These terrorists, those fanatics have nothing to do with Islam," he said. "We need to mobilize to be able to respond by force when needed, but we also must respond with solidarity."

The massive manhunt for the two brothers came to a head earlier Friday after the suspects stole a Peugeot car. The pair exchanged gunfire at a roadblock before fleeing to the nearby industrial town where the standoff ensued. Police had concentrated on the region after a clerk at a gasoline station said the pair robbed him at gunpoint Thursday.

After arriving in Dammartin-en-Goele, the brothers approached a salesman identified only as Didier as he prepared to enter the family-run printing and advertising firm in the town, French radio reported.

Didier said a person, who was heavily armed and resembled French special forces, introduced himself as a policeman and said, "You should go. We don't kill civilians anyway."

Didier left and called the police.

Over the past two days, authorities have begun to piece together the background of the Kouachi brothers.

Cherif Kouachi had been convicted on terrorism charges, and Said Kouachi traveled to Yemen in 2011, raising the prospect he had training or direction, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak on the case publicly. Both were on the U.S. no-fly watch list, the official added.

Another suspect in Charlie Hebdo attack, Hamyd Mourad, 18, surrendered at a police station early Thursday in Charleville-Mezieres, a small town in France's eastern Champagne region, Paris prosecutor's spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said.

Mourad's role in the attack, if any, remains unclear. The teenager has an alibi, telling authorities he was at school at the time, the BBC reported.

President Obama, speaking in Knoxville, Tenn., to announce a major proposal to make community college free, expressed relief Friday that the crisis in Paris appears to have reached a culminating point.

"We're hopeful the immediate threat is now resolved," Obama said. "In the streets of Paris, the world has seen once again what terrorists stand for. They have nothing to offer but hatred and human suffering."

He added, "We stand for freedom, hope and the dignity of all human beings, and that's what the city of Paris represents to the world."

Hours later, the State Department issued a global travel warning, noting other recent terror attacks and the increased risk to Americans because of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

Stanglin reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Jabeen Bhatti and Angela Waters in Berlin; Kim Hjelmgaard in Paris; Kevin Johnson in Washington; Michael Winter in San Francisco; Associated Press