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 The violent end to the simultaneous stand-offs northeast of Paris
and at a Jewish supermarket in the capital followed a police
operation of unprecedented scale as France tackled one of the worst
threats to its internal security in decades.
With one of the gunmen saying shortly before his death that he was
funded by al Qaeda, President Francois Hollande warned that the
danger to France - home to the European Union's biggest communities
of both Muslims and Jews - was not over yet.
"These madmen, fanatics, have nothing to do with the Muslim
religion," Hollande said in a televised address. "France has not
seen the end of the threats it faces."
An audio recording posted on YouTube attributed to a leader of the
Yemeni branch of al Qaeda (AQAP) said the attack in France was
prompted by insults to prophets but stopped short of claiming
responsibility for the assault on the offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Sheikh Hareth al-Nadhari said in the recording, "Some in France have
misbehaved with the prophets of God and a group of God's faithful
soldiers taught them how to behave and the limits of freedom of
speech."
 "Soldiers who love God and his prophet and who are in love with
martyrdom for the sake of God had come to you," he said in the
recording, the authenticity of which could not immediately be
verified. A Yemeni journalist who specializes in al Qaeda said it was clear
that AQAP had provided a "spiritual inspiration" for the attack on
the newspaper offices, but there was no clear sign that it was
directly responsible for the assault.
Following heavy loss of life over three consecutive days, which
began with the attack on Charlie Hebdo when 12 people were shot
dead, French authorities are trying to prevent a rise in vengeful
anti-immigrant sentiment.
Hollande denounced the killing of the four hostages at the kosher
supermarket in the Vincennes district of Paris. "This was an
appalling anti-Semitic act that was committed," he said.
Officials said Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said, both in their
thirties, died when security forces raided a print shop in the small
town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the chief
suspects in Wednesday's attack had been holed up. The hostage they
had taken was safe, an official said.
Automatic gunfire rang out, followed by blasts and then silence as
smoke billowed from the roof of the print shop. In thick fog, a
helicopter landed on the building's roof, signaling the end of the
assault. A government source said the brothers had emerged from the
building and opened fire on police before they were killed.
Before his death, one of the Kouachi brothers told a television
station he had received financing from an al Qaeda preacher in
Yemen.
"I was sent, me, Cherif Kouachi, by Al Qaeda of Yemen. I went over
there and it was Anwar al Awlaki who financed me," he told BFM-TV by
telephone, according to a recording aired by the channel after the
siege was over.
 Al Awlaki, an influential international recruiter for al Qaeda, was
killed in September 2011 in a drone strike. A senior Yemeni
intelligence source earlier told Reuters that Kouachi's brother Said
had also met al Awlaki during a stay in Yemen in 2011. TARGETING JEWS
Minutes after the print shop assault, police broke the second siege
at the supermarket in eastern Paris. Four hostages died there along
with the gunman, Amedy Coulibaly.
Coulibaly had also called BFM-TV to claim allegiance to Islamic
State, saying he wanted to defend Palestinians and target Jews.
Coulibaly said he had jointly planned the attacks with the Kouachi
brothers, and police confirmed they were all members of the same
Islamist cell in northern Paris.
Police had already been hunting 32-year-old Coulibaly along with a
26 year-old woman after the killing on Thursday of a policewoman.
The woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, remains on the run.
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Paris chief prosecutor Francois Molins told a press briefing that
the two Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly had an arsenal of weapons and
had set up booby traps. He said they had a loaded M82 rocket
launcher, two Kalashnikov machine guns and two automatic pistols on
them.
“On the body of one of the terrorists, the demining teams also found
a grenade that had been positioned as a trap,” Molins said. He
said Coulibaly had attacked police forces with a Kalashnikov assault
rifle and a “Skorpion” military pistol. After he was shot, police
found two Russian-made Tokarev pistols, two machine guns, a
bullet-proof vest and ammunition in the kosher supermarket.
“The supermarket had also been booby-trapped,” he said, noting that
Coulibaly had placed 15 explosive sticks and one detonator in the
supermarket.
Altogether 17 victims have died along with the three hostage-takers
since Wednesday.
France plans a unity rally on Sunday to protest against the attacks.
Among those due to attend are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime
Ministers David Cameron of Britain, Matteo Renzi of Italy and
Mariano Rajoy of Spain, and European Commission president
Jean-Claude Juncker.
President Barack Obama also expressed U.S. support. "I want the
people of France to know that the United States stands with you
today, stands with you tomorrow," he said.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder joined the
condemnations, saying, "Jewish life in France under threat if terror
does not stop".
HOSTAGES RUSHED OUT
News footage of the kosher supermarket showed dozens of heavily
armed police officers outside two entrances. The assault began with
gunfire and an explosion at the door, after which hostages were
rushed out.
Reuters photographs taken from long distance showed a man holding an
infant being herded into an ambulance by police. Others were carried
out on stretchers.
 French authorities mobilized a force of nearly 90,000 after
Wednesday's attack on Charlie Hebdo, a weekly that has long courted
controversy by mocking Islam and other religions and political
leaders.
A witness said one of the gunmen in Wednesday's attack was heard to
shout: "We have killed Charlie Hebdo! We have avenged the Prophet!" The Kouachi brothers are believed to be the hooded gunmen who shot
dead some of France's top satirical cartoonists along with two
police officers.
Security sources said the brothers, who were born in France of
Algerian-born parents, had been under surveillance and had been
placed on European and U.S. "no-fly" lists.
The violence raised questions about surveillance of radicals,
far-right politics, religion and censorship in a land struggling to
integrate part of its five million-strong Muslim community.
(Additional reporting by Paris and U.S. bureaus; Writing by Ralph
Boulton and David Stamp; Editing by Peter Millership, Robin Pomeroy,
Toni Reinhold)
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