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Attack against “Charlie Hebdo”: a terrorist act (maj4)

Charb's wishes... (credit: Charlie Hebdo)
Charb's wishes... (credit: Charlie Hebdo)

(B2) The attack, this Wednesday morning (January 7) against the satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo", in Paris, took a heavy toll. 12 dead according to the latest report (including 8 journalists, 2 police officers, 1 cleaning agent), 11 injured including 3-4 injured were in critical condition "absolute emergency" on the day of the tragedy.

A commando of two people, dressed in black, hooded - according to the testimonies of local residents and the police, collected by the French media (cf. France Info), entered the newspaper, watering with automatic weapons (including Kalashnikov type), the witnesses present. They did not hesitate to shoot the police officer placed in protection at the newspaper as well as those - from the VTT and anti-crime brigade of the 11th = BAC11 - arriving in intervention on the spot, doing at least one another victim among the police. Slogans of "jihadist type" (Allahu Akbar) would have been pronounced on this occasion, by the aggressors.

A terrorist act

« An act of exceptional barbarism against a newspaper, journalists who had always wanted to show that they could defend their ideas in France, this freedom that France protects. A terrorist act immediately qualified President François Hollande who came to the scene in the 11th arrondissement of the French capital.

Attacks already foiled in previous weeks

An exceptional meeting takes place at the Elysée, at the beginning of the afternoon, bringing together the ministers concerned with national security (Defence, Interior, Justice). Objective: to determine all the places which could be the target and must be protected " of these same barbarians in the words of François Hollande himself. " Several terrorist attacks have been foiled in recent weeks. said the French president. “We knew that we were threatened like many countries in the world ».

First comments

Organized and well-informed men

This Kalashnikov attack does not resemble the previous waves of attacks experienced by France (Paris in particular) in the years 1986 and 1995-96, which generally used explosive devices (trapped parcels, bombs, vehicles, etc.) ...). It resembles, by the modus operandi (use of automatic weapons then flight), the attack in Brussels against the Jewish museum in May 2014 (read: Brussels attack. A cold, determined man). But it also differs in many ways.

The attackers were in groups (at least 2) and seemed, according to the first accounts, well organized and informed, intervening with a vehicle and outfits (black clothes, balaclavas, bulletproof vests) closely resembling combatants or forces specials. The attack was planned. It was conducted at the time of the newspaper's editorial conference (with the presence of all the journalists). With a deliberate desire to target a press organ, at its head and in all its elements. The attackers did not kill, randomly, on everything that moved. The members of the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo or those who could threaten their retirement too closely (such as the police) are targeted.

However, certain elements give rise to questions, suggesting that the organization was not as perfect as the appearance shows: getting the wrong address first for Charlie Hebdo (they first went to the archives), losing several seconds to kill a policeman already on the ground (according to the video broadcast everywhere), "plant" his vehicle, forget an identity card in a vehicle (NB: assuming it's the right one).

The satirical newspaper, with anarchist tendencies, Charlie Hebdo had already been threatened in the past. Its premises were set on fire in November 2011 with a "Molotov cocktail" type device. Any conclusion on one origin or another must be hastily avoided. The authors could come from the extreme jihadist movement, as certain elements suggest, but also have received a "helping hand" from ultra fringes of the far right.

A blow for the press as a whole

The aggressors would have succeeded in their "coup". Among the victims contained (information now confirmed) a good part of the soul of the newspaper: Charb, the director of the newspaper, and several other cartoonists like Wolinski, Cabu, Tignous and Honored, as well as the economist Bernard Marris, shareholder of the newspaper. Most of the victims were well known in the press, drawing or appearing in several other media (Le Monde, Liberation, Le Canard enchaîné, Marianne, L'Express, La Croix, les Inrockuptibles, Mon Quotidien, France-Inter, Arte... ). What makes this attack the most serious, because he aims the French press as a whole. Among the injured, there are also signatures of the newspaper such as the cartoonist Riss, the journalists Philippe Lançon and Fabrice Nicolino (patented ecologist, his blog), the webmaster, Simon Fieschi, as well as another policeman from the VTT brigade and a passerby.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(Updated) balance sheet adjusted compared to the first article, names of the victims completed, and first elements of analysis.

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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