January 7: On This Day in World History … briefly
In an open letter entitled ‘To the Youth in Europe and North America’, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini urged young people in Europe and North America not to judge Islam by the attacks, but to seek their own understanding of the religion.
2015: Two gunmen commit mass murder in Paris
At about 11.30am on January 7, two brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Armed with rifles and other weapons, they killed 12 people and injured 11 others. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, which took responsibility for the attack. Several related attacks followed in the Île-de-France region during January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege where a terrorist held 19 hostages, of whom he murdered four Jews.
France raised its Vigipirate terror alert and deployed soldiers in Île-de-France and Picardy. A major manhunt led to the discovery of the suspects, who exchanged fire with police. The brothers took hostages at a signage company in Dammartin-en-Goële on January 9 and were shot dead when they emerged from the building firing.
On the morning of 7 January 2015, a Wednesday, Charlie Hebdo staff were gathered at 10 Rue Nicolas-Appert in the 11th arrondissement of Paris for the weekly editorial meeting starting around 10.30am. The magazine had moved into an unmarked office at this address following the 2011 firebombing of their previous premises. Around 11.30am, two armed and hooded men burst first into the wrong address at number 6 Rue Nicolas-Appert, shouting “Is this Charlie Hebdo?” and threatening people. After realising their mistakem they fired a bullet through a glass door and left for number 10. There, they encountered cartoonist Corinne ‘Coco’ Rey outside and used threats to force her to key in the passcode at the door.
The men sprayed the lobby with gunfire upon entering. The first victim was maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau, who was killed as he sat at the reception desk. They then forced Rey at gunpoint to lead them to a second-floor office, where 15 staff members were having an editorial meeting – Charlie Hebdo’s first news conference of the year. Reporter Laurent Léger said they were interrupted by what they thought was the sound of a firecracker (gunfire from the lobby) and recalled “We still thought it was a joke and the atmosphere was still joyous.” The gunmen burst into the meeting room and called out Charb’s name to target him before opening fire, then aimed at the journalists’ heads and killed them. The shooting lasted five to ten minutes. During the gunfire, Rey survived uninjured by hiding under a desk, from where she witnessed the murders of Wolinski and Cabu. Léger also survived by hiding under a desk as the gunmen entered. Other witnesses reported that the gunmen identified themselves as belonging to Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat, a French columnist of Tunisian Jewish descent, was killed. Another female columnist present at the time, crime reporter Sigolène Vinson, survived; one of the shooters aimed at her, but spared her, saying “I’m not killing you because you are a woman”, telling her to read the Quran. She said he left shouting ‘Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!’ An authenticated video surfaced on the internet showing two gunmen and police officer Ahmed Merabet, who was wounded and lying on a sidewalk. This took place near the corner of Boulevard Richard-Lenoir and Rue Moufle, 180 metres (590 ft) east of the main crime scene. One of the gunmen ran towards the policeman and shouted “Did you want to kill us?” The policeman answered “No, it’s fine, boss.” and raised his hand toward the gunman, who then delivered a fatal shot to the policeman’s head at close range.
Sam Kiley of Sky News concluded from the video that the two gunmen were ‘military professionals’ who likely had ‘combat experience’, saying that the gunmen were exercising infantry tactics such as moving in ‘mutual support’ and were firing aimed, single-round shots at the police officer. He also stated that they were using military gestures and were ‘familiar with their weapons’ and fired ‘carefully aimed shots, with tight groupings’. The gunmen then left the scene, shouting (according to witnesses) “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad. We have killed Charlie Hebdo!” They escaped in a getaway car and drove to Porte de Pantin, hijacking another car by forcing its driver out. As they drove away, they ran over a pedestrian and shot at responding police officers.
It was initially believed that there were three suspects. One identified suspect turned himself in at a Charleville-Mézières police station. Seven of the Kouachi brothers’ friends and family were taken into custody. Jihadist flags and Molotov cocktails were found in an abandoned getaway car, a black Citroën C3.
On January 11, about two million people, including more than 40 world leaders, met in Paris for a rally of national unity, and 3.7 million people joined demonstrations across France. The phrase Je suis Charlie became a common slogan of support at the rallies and in social media. The staff of Charlie Hebdo continued with the publication, and the following issue print ran 7.95 million copies in six languages, compared to its typical print run of 60 000 in only French.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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