Terrorists Killed In France

Three terrorists -- including the two suspects in Wednesday's massacre at a newspaper office -- have been killed as police ended two separate hostage sieges today in the Paris area.

Officials say a hostage was freed after being held by the two brothers suspected in the killings at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper. They say the brothers -- Cherif and Said Kouachi -- came out of their hideaway with guns blazing, and were killed in a shootout. It happened at a printing plant near the Charles de Gaulle airport.

The other hostage siege involved a man who police say was linked to the newspaper shooting suspects. A police union official says the gunman -- who took at least five hostages at a kosher grocery in Paris -- died in a raid at nearly the same time as the one that killed the brothers. According to one police official, three hostages also died at the grocery.

A police official had said that just minutes before the raid, the gunman at the kosher grocery had threatened to kill his five hostages if French authorities launched an assault on the two brothers.

Police believe the gunman at the grocery was also responsible for the roadside killing of a Paris policewoman yesterday.

A French news network says it spoke directly with two of the terrorists who held hostages at separate locations in Paris Friday, and says one of them claimed allegiance to al-Qaida in Yemen and the other to the Islamic State group.
BFM television quoted Cherif Kouachi as saying he was financed and dispatched by al-Qaida in Yemen. It said it spoke with him as he was cornered near Charles de Gaulle airport together his brother. The two, who were later killed, are suspected of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

The network said it also spoke with Amedy Coulibaly, who held hostages at a kosher grocery in eastern Paris. It quoted Coulibaly as saying the men were coordinating and that he was with the Islamic State. The organizations are normally rivals.