Paris Attacks: Three Days Of Terror

Summary

The Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris marked a pivotal moment of terror that shook France and the world. Over three harrowing days, gunmen targeted the Charlie Hebdo office, resulting in the deaths of journalists, illustrators, and police officers. The events triggered worldwide debates on free speech and the response to Islamic extremism. French police tracked and ultimately killed the attackers, two brothers with known terrorist links. Yet, the assaults highlighted lingering vulnerabilities in security systems. The events ended with a call for unity, as people across the globe stood in solidarity with the victims.

Highlights

• The Charlie Hebdo massacre initiated three days of terror in Paris, with 12 people killed. 🗞️
• The attackers, known to security services, escaped initially but were tracked down and killed. 🚓
• Calls for resilience and unity echoed worldwide, showcasing solidarity against terrorism. 🤝
• Witness accounts described unimaginable horror and bravery on the day of the attacks. 😨
• The events spurred discussions on balancing security and freedom in democratic societies. ⚖️

Key Takeaways

• The Charlie Hebdo attacks sparked intense global debates on freedom of expression. ✍️
• A coordinated series of attacks in Paris revealed gaps in security responses. 🚨
• Public unity and global support followed, defying the aims of the terrorists. 🌍
• The attacks were linked to brothers known to French intelligence, raising questions about monitoring. 🔍
• Despite the chaos, the spirit of defiance and support for free speech remained unbroken. 🕊️

Overview

The horrific events that unfolded in Paris started with a brutal attack on the Charlie Hebdo office. Gunmen opened fire, killing 12 people, including prominent journalists and cartoonists, who had been part of a controversial satire magazine. The attack was a direct hit at the heart of press freedom, igniting worldwide debate and mourning.

The chase for the attackers turned Paris into a scene from a thriller, with suspects leading police on a tense manhunt that spanned the city. Law enforcement faced tremendous pressure to capture the perpetrators. The attackers, already flagged by intelligence services, underscored the challenges in preventing such threats despite prior knowledge of their extremist ties.

In the aftermath, a show of global unity emerged as leaders and citizens around the world expressed solidarity with France. Public gatherings emphasized resilience and defiance in the face of terrorism. While security forces eventually neutralized the threat, the incidents left lasting questions about safety and civil liberties, underscoring the constant balance between security and freedom.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Opening and Initial Reactions The chapter titled 'Opening and Initial Reactions' delves into the dramatic events that unfolded over three days in France, marked by violent acts of terror. The narrative begins with the gunfire that struck the Charlie Hebdo office on a quiet Wednesday morning in Paris, sending shockwaves across Europe. This incident reignited intense discussions surrounding freedom of speech and liberty, core principles deeply embedded in French society. The music sets a gripping tone for the unfolding drama, capturing the sense of shock and urgency that enveloped the region.
• 01:30 - 05:40: Details of the Attack This chapter focuses on the increasing threat posed by Islamic extremists, particularly those who have turned against their countries of birth. The narrative highlights recent explosions that have raised concerns about the effectiveness of security services in monitoring these threats. It labels those who commit such violent acts as monstrous, emphasizing the shock and fear instilled by these events.
• 05:40 - 08:30: Identities of the Attackers and Global Reactions The chapter titled 'Identities of the Attackers and Global Reactions' discusses a significant event in Paris that elicited various international responses.
• 08:30 - 12:30: Wave of Terror Expands In this chapter titled 'Wave of Terror Expands,' the narrative focuses on a tense and violent scene involving two heavily armed gunmen. These gunmen, having already claimed lives, continue their rampage, not hesitating to inflict further harm. A police officer becomes one of their victims, being shot, injured, and then ruthlessly targeted again at close range as the attackers attempt to make their escape. The chapter paints a stark picture of the chaos and brutality, expanding on the theme of terror escalating.
• 12:30 - 21:30: Resolution of the Sieges The chapter 'Resolution of the Sieges' discusses the aftermath of a violent encounter. It describes the perpetrators gloating over the chaos as they flee the scene. Observers witness the end of a shooting where people attempt to escape while the police promptly arrive. Sadly, one officer, in an effort to confront the gunman, is tragically shot and killed in cold blood.
• 21:30 - 24:30: Concluding Reflections The chapter vividly describes the terrifying aftermath of a violent attack carried out by a gunman. It opens with a haunting scene where paramedics and police officers arrive at the site of the attack, only to be met with unthinkable horror. The narrative captures the chaos and urgency as the wounded, some in critical condition, scramble to the streets in search of medical assistance. Inside, the chilling presence of those who did not survive the attack underscores the severity of the tragedy.

Paris Attacks: Three Days Of Terror Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] for three days France has been gripped by an unfolding drama of unprecedented violence the terror that was Unleashed as that first burst of gunfire ripped through the Charlie hebo office on a quiet Wednesday morning in Paris has sent shock waves through Europe it has triggered once more agonized debate about freedom of speech and Liberty that Keystone of the French
• 00:30 - 01:00 States we're also getting explosions now and it has raised questions about how the security services monitor the threat from Islamic extremists who have come to hate the nations in which they were born people who who kills is a monster the human
• 01:00 - 01:30 race cannot be stopped by hatred president decided to gather and to shout on the pl Republic we are not afraid an attack in broad daylight in the heart of Paris
• 01:30 - 02:00 two heavily armed gunmen making their escape they've already killed and were about to add more victims to their Slaughter this police officer lying on the ground has been shot and injured approaching in combat mode before shooting him again at Point Blank Range
• 02:00 - 02:30 gloating about the Bloodshed as they calmly make their getaway what I saw were the end of the shooting people trying to escape and policemen arriving on the very quickly and unfortunately for one of them he uh he tried to uh uh fight and he tried to run uh towards the gun man and he was shot he was shot down in Cold Blood
• 02:30 - 03:00 [Music] the gunman left behind a scene of unimaginable horror paramedics and police officers descending on the sight of the attack confronted with the aftermath of a blood bath the wounded some critically poured out onto the streets seeking help inside the building their dead
• 03:00 - 03:30 colleagues journalists and illustrators of the magazine Charlie hebo we saw a lot of bodies that were already on the ground some of them looked clearly uh dead so there was nothing much we could do so we did that and then we waited for the uh rescue teams to come in and uh within minutes the place was completely packed with the police emergency teams and and so on and so forth so we just uh at some point an author ative voice um Rose from the
• 03:30 - 04:00 crowd and they said well look everybody is still alive leave the room and uh so we just left and then we were sort of uh outside in our our own office among those killed Stefan shabon editor of the weekly publication he'd received threats before but defended cartoons featuring The Prophet Muhammad once saying I'd prefer to die standing than live on my knees
• 04:00 - 04:30 the prophet Muhammad is sacred to Muslims and I can understand that but for Muslims only I'm an atheist Muhammad is not sacred to me I understand that Muslims don't violate their law of blasphemy and I don't blame them for not finding our cartoons funny but they shouldn't tell me under which law I should live also murdered the Magazine's lead cartoonist Jean kabo and George walinsky an 8-year-old satirist who'd been drawing cartoons since the 1960s
• 04:30 - 05:00 they killed my daddy but they didn't kill their ideas they killed men and that's the way it is but thanks to all this show of solidarity thanks to all these people full of love who are rebelling we're going to be able to do something from it we're going to be able to fight gradually the sequence of events became clear at 11:30 the gunman arrived
• 05:00 - 05:30 at Ru Nicola AER in a black citan car armed with AK-47s and a grenade launcher they asked maintenance man Frederick basau for directions to the shlie hebdo office before shooting him dead at the front door they force cartoonist Karine Ray and her young daughter to let them in they make their way to the second floor where the editor is cheering a meeting they kill police officer Frank Brin salaro who is guarding the editor
• 05:30 - 06:00 because of previous threats the gunman then asked for Stefan shabon by name and shoot him dead before killing cartoonists George wilinski Jean kabu Bernard vac and Philip onor as well as writer Bernard Marie they also murdered columnist Elsa kayat sub editor Mustafa urad and Michelle Gard a visitor 10 other people are also injured after five 5 minutes the gunmen flee around the
• 06:00 - 06:30 corner in Al vert they're confronted by police an open fire leaving a patrol car riddled with bullets on the boulevard Rishad Lenoir it's after this police officer Ahmed merabet is wounded and then killed by the gunman before they drive off these are the men suspected of the atrocity their two brothers French Nationals of Algerian descent sheriff and SED Kachi both reportedly known to
• 06:30 - 07:00 the French intelligence Services shereif appeared in a documentary about extremism a decade ago and was jailed in 2008 for terrorism related offenses the French police and French intelligence Services knew this group pretty well uh not least because both Kachi Brothers had been in prison uh the younger one for sending recruits to Iraq to go and fight for Al-Qaeda against the American Le occupation the older for being part of a plot to try to release a known
• 07:00 - 07:30 terrorist an Algerian terrorist who was part of a bombing campaign in in the 1980s from prison a prison breakout so those two were well known on top of that the older one went to uh the Yemen and actually met with Ana Al alaki now he is the well until he was killed he was probably the most famous and certainly the most important Al-Qaeda leader anywhere in the world including Osama Bin Laden as parisians sought to make sense of the slaughter they leader
• 07:30 - 08:00 spoke today France has been attacked at its very heart in Paris in the building of a paper and this violent attack killed 12 people and wounded some more today in your name I would like to express our gratefulness to those people who are wounded to all those who have been killed by this cowardly assassination
• 08:00 - 08:30 today they are our heroes freedom of expression can't simply be attacked State Authority can't simply be attacked of course I'm thinking about my brother but also his colleague who died and his wife the wife of my brother his daughter his child and my whole family now world leaders joined in the condemnation it was not just France under attack they said it was the principles of democracy and the freedom of expression which were also under
• 08:30 - 09:00 threat this country stands United with the French people in our opposition to all forms of terrorism and we stand squarely for free speech and democracy to see the kind of cowardly evil attacks that took place today I think reinforces once again why it's so important for us to stand in solidarity with them just as they stand in solidarity with us but possibly the strong longest message of defiance came
• 09:00 - 09:30 from the world's cartoonists United in grief and galvanized in Outrage their pens proving more powerful than any terrorist weapon I did that picture because uh it was on a simple picture I was able to to make something something about how to to resist and go on and uh still feeling alive despite what happened in sh Abdu there were so many talented C
• 09:30 - 10:00 shab uh tenus and kabo and for some people of my generation these persons were very uh were some very great influences but as dusk fell around the world candles were lit and crowds gathered with one message for those who had brought Terror to the French capital J sh [Music]
• 10:00 - 10:30 the mood of shock and grief was still clear the next day as Paris Stood Still in defiance against the attack I felt compelled to come here today um to Stand United with Paris and to make them aware that the whole of Europe and the rest of the world are with them on this tragic day
• 10:30 - 11:00 [Music] the human race cannot be stopped by hatred and um I feel for the French people I really do because we felt it in New York and um and they'll come they'll come back stronger
• 11:00 - 11:30 but now came the first sign that the attack on shal ABDO might be a part of a larger overarching plan to bring Terror to Paris a policewoman was shot at a metro station in the south of the capital by a man wearing a bulletproof vest the attack was at first believed to be unconnected to the sh ABDO shootings the following day that was proved to be wrong the man hunt for the two Aldo suspects moved rapidly to this petrol
• 11:30 - 12:00 station in the town of V cot north of Paris two men matching the gunman's description fired shots before stealing Fuel and food a Rena Cleo stolen by the suspects was found abandoned not far from the petrol station armed police scoured Woodland and Farms with helicopters hovering overhead and police going door too it seemed that the hunt was closing in
• 12:00 - 12:30 Darkness fell and the Eiffel Tower dimmed its lights to reflect the mood of its citizens but day three was to see an intensification of the terror Dawn on day three began with one of the biggest manhunts in France's history the two brothers wanted for the massacre of 12 people were still at
• 12:30 - 13:00 AR but 25 mil Northeast of Paris The Surge appeared to be reaching its final stages as the net closed in reports were emerging that the Kachi Brothers had been seen in this area now suddenly the police had a real breakthrough
• 13:00 - 13:30 the kaju brothers had been forced to dump their car as it ran out of fuel and had now hijacked another they'd been seen heading south back towards the capital but half an hour later they encountered a police roadblock
• 13:30 - 14:00 after a firefight they dumped their car and headed on foot across a field finding themselves in the small industrial town of damat here they were forced to take refuge in a local printing work this morning what surprised me was after dropping my daughter at school around 8:30 at 8:45 there was a
• 14:00 - 14:30 helicopter hovering over my house it was very impressive knowing this area and what happened yesterday I thought that something must be happening in our village or nearby the police had their men cornered special forces were dispatched to the site in preparation for the final encounter with a two men one of the brothers spoke to a French TV station
• 14:30 - 15:00 [Music] [Music] but at the same time news of another hostage situation was breaking in Paris worst fears that this was turning into a wave of coordinated
• 15:00 - 15:30 [Music] attacks as a man armed with a Kalashnikov open fire in a Kosher Supermarket dozens of Vans carrying police in combat gear race through the streets of central Paris to the scene in port de laan this is the building with blue tinted windows but it was soon becoming clear that it was turning into another
• 15:30 - 16:00 hostage situation there was an African individual who had a Kalashnikov he was reported as being at 23 Avenue P he immediately went into the Delicatessen and started shooting with his Kalashnikov what is for sure is that colleagues who are there have already seen six hostages this individual seems to be the same one from yesterday he's African and his name is kulali sadly
• 16:00 - 16:30 yesterday he already carried out some atrocities by killing a police woman these are the two suspects who at the time were believed to be involved in the second Siege 32-year-old emdy kibali and his partner 26-year-old hayat buan police believe kibali is also responsible for the shooting of the Paris policewoman Clarissa Jean Filip French media reporting that the grocery hostage taker was demanding freedom for
• 16:30 - 17:00 the Kachi [Music] Brothers police locked down the area in port de laen schools were evacuated all shops and the streets were told to close and those in nearby restaurants hid under tables okay see the French authorities were now facing an unprecedented crisis two separate but linked sieges involving
• 17:00 - 17:30 hostages on two different sites the al-Qaeda Playbook is all about multiple attacks and causing Mash casualties now in this case therefore once it was clear that these individuals were part of the al-Qaeda franchise that they've been inspired and trained by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula it should have been assumed that there would be more operations following the killings uh in the magazine and then
• 17:30 - 18:00 their departure it should and then the information coming from the yemenis that these people were known to the yemeni authorities the French police would have assumed and would have been right that there was going to be another attack because that's what Al-Qaeda does as dusk fell in Daman a door was left open to the printing works [Applause]
• 18:00 - 18:30 minutes later shareif inside Kachi burst through shooting at officers Special Forces moved in gunfire was exchanged and both men were killed from the smoke emerged this man unknown to the gunman he'd been hiding under a sink on the second floor during
• 18:30 - 19:00 the entire operation and he'd sent police information via text messages his boss Michael Catalano had been released earlier by the gunman I didn't get the impression they were going to harm me even if it does seem to be unbelievable but that's precisely the situation I found myself in because possibly they had an oun of humanity so far as I was concerned because they let me out Sur they didn't find the other
• 19:00 - 19:30 person yes well it's not incredible it's magnificent and that's what I was really terrified of back in the capital A near simultaneous assault was being planned on the Jewish grocery store but the outcome here would be very different the store was surrounded and unknown to the hostage takers French police had hacked into the shop CCTV system to monitor
• 19:30 - 20:00 their movements they were able to send messages to one of the hostages inside on a mobile phone Gathering crucial information on the situation the hostage taker Emy kibali also decided to give an interview to a French TV station
• 20:00 - 20:30 the direct assault on the front of the building came with risks a friend officer was struck and injured and
• 20:30 - 21:00 carried to safety by colleagues kibali charged at police officers as they entered he was shot dead before he reached them he had held 19 people hostage only 15 emerged from their terrifying ordeal one man is surrounded as he holds on to a distraught child This Woman's anguish clearly
• 21:00 - 21:30 visible when we went into the shop we heard a boom and we saw a guy with a bulletproof vest with a green jacket and two kalashnikovs a revolver and a knife we were sitting down and to our right there were two dead bodies two people that were killed when he walked in as soon as he came in he started shooting what scared us is that he said I'm not worried about dying either I will die or go to prison for 40 years so he knew this was his last day three days of Terror have paralyzed
• 21:30 - 22:00 France the authorities will say the attackers were identified quickly tracked and shot dead but they will also have to admit that these men were known to the police as were their links to International Terror groups hostages have been killed and a terrorist has evaded capture and it's not known how many others were involved in the planning and execution of the Carnage I think the French police are going to be dismayed with the loss of four hostages
• 22:00 - 22:30 in the Paris operation I think they're also going to be asking some very serious questions as to why the two rescue operations were not launched simultaneously the hostage taker in the Paris Deli had said I will kill these hostages if you launch an operation uh against my friends aashi Brothers now that operation against the Kashi Brothers went off about 10 to 15 minutes before the attack went in against the the hostage Tak in the delhi now they had surveillance we understand inside
• 22:30 - 23:00 the Delhi the police had hacked into the CCTV inside that building they had may have also been in communication with a hostage taker and they would have wanted to go absolutely simultaneously there's some evidence that they may have delayed it because they needed the TV cameras around them to switch off the live feed before they could go in and if that's the case there's going to be a serious controversy and a lot of anger in France as grief begins to Make Way for rage there was a warning for France and
• 23:00 - 23:30 it came from a family still mourning the loss of a loved one Ahmed meat the policeman who was so callously murdered following the attack on the shlie hebo offices was a Muslim a Muslim who died defending the right to free speech Islam I now am addressing myself to all racists the islamophobes and the
• 23:30 - 24:00 anti-semites you mustn't mix up extremism with Muslims the Mad Men have no color nor religion and i' just like to underline another aspect stop associating or having Wars or burning synagogues because you're attacking people it won't bring back the dead and it won't Comfort the families the terrorists who stopped France's heart from beating for 3 Days wanted to break the country into a fractured hateful state
• 24:00 - 24:30 on Sunday French citizens have been asked to spill out onto the streets again to prove The Killers have failed