Paris Attack: Networks Cover Two Dramatic Standoffs Between Suspects and Police (Updating)

Brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi reportedly holding hostage as police surround them northeast of Paris; separate suspect reportedly holding hostages in grocery store outside of Paris

Updated 8:07amPT, Friday, January 9th

TV news reports French police have assaulted both hostage sites—the print shop the Kouachi brothers have been staked out in with a hostage and the kosher grocery shop the third suspect is holding several hostages.

Reports of dozens of gunshots and explosions are coming from multiple outlets.

Previously

TV news networks went wall-to-wall covering two separate standoffs between Charlie Hebdo terror suspects and French police.

Negotiations between GIGN—elite French counter-terror forces—and brothers, Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouach, 32—are happening in Dammartin-en-Goele, a town northeast of Paris several miles from Charles de Gaulle Airport. The Kouachi brothers are reportedly holding a hostage in a printing shop.

The Kouachi brothers and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad—who’s already turned himself into police— are the chief suspects in Wednesday’s terror attack on the satirical newspaper that killed 12, including cartoonists and police.

Reports also suggest a separate third suspect who shot and killed a female police officer Thursday in Montrouge—a southern suburb of Paris—is engaged in a standoff at a kosher grocery store just outside of Paris, with several hostages being held. France’s Agence France-Presse reports two hostages held in the grocery store have been killed. Reports say the suspect is tied to the Charlie Hebdo attackers, but it is unknown if he helped in the planning of the actual attack Wednesday.

The brothers reportedly moved from hiding out in a forest to taking a hostage Friday in Paris. Networks report they have told police they want to “die as martyrs.”

They are reportedly members of Al Qaeda in Yemen.

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