Security forces deploy in zone where Paris attack suspects spotted

French security forces deployed Jan. 7 in a northern town where two brothers suspected of having gunned down 12 people in an Islamist attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo abandoned their car, a police source said.
      
RAID, the anti-terrorist unit of the French police force, and the GIGN, a paramilitary special operations unit, deployed in Villers-Cotterets in the northern Aisne region "where a car was abandoned after being used by the two suspects, who were identified by a witness," the source told AFP.
      
Cherif Kouachi, 32, a jihadist well-known to police, and his brother Said, 34, were spotted by the manager of a petrol station in the town about an hour's drive northeast of Paris, who after being robbed "formally identified" the two men.
      
They were described as "masked, with Kalashnikovs" and what appeared to be a rocket-launcher.

Seven people have been detained in the hunt for brothers suspected of gunning down 12 people in an Islamist assault on a satirical weekly, a judicial source said.

Confirming earlier comments by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, the source, who refused to be named, said men and women close to the two brothers were currently being questioned by police, without saying where they had been detained.

Valls, meanwhile, told RTL radio that the two suspects - who are still on the run - were known to intelligence services and were "no doubt" being followed before Wednesday's attack.

The masked, black-clad gunmen burst into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine on Wednesday morning, killing some of France's most outspoken journalists and two policemen, before jumping into a car and escaping.

Police have issued arrest warrants for Cherif Kouachi, 32, a known...