Charlie Hebdo suspects killed as twin sieges rock France

Elite French police stormed a printworks and a Jewish supermarket Jan. 9, killing two brothers wanted for the Charlie Hebdo attack and a gunman linked to them in a dramatic end to twin sieges that rocked France.

As shots and explosions rang out in the City of Light, five people, including the gunman, were found dead in the aftermath of the assault on the Jewish store in eastern Paris and several captives were freed, security sources said.

A further four people were in critical condition after the raid, as ambulances raced to the scene, joining a jam of police vans, other emergency vehicles and helicopters buzzing overhead.
"It's war!" screamed a mother as she dragged her daughter from the scene.

An AFP reporter saw at least one body lying at the scene, where the sliding glass door of the shop was completely shattered.

The dramatic climax to the two standoffs brought to an end more than 48 hours of fear and uncertainty that began when the two brothers slaughtered 12 people at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in the bloodiest attack on French soil in half a century.

The weekly had lampooned jihadists and repeatedly published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which angered many Muslims.

President Francois Hollande was to address the nation before 1900 GMT.

About 30 kilometres (16 miles) to the northeast, in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele, the two Islamist Charlie Hebdo gunmen staged a desperate escape bid, charging out of the building all guns blazing at the security forces before being cut down in their tracks, a security source said.

Police confirmed their identity as Cherif and Said Kouachi, French-born orphans of Algerian origin.

The other hostage-taker in the eastern Porte de...