Terror attacks in France; Supermarket RAID; GIGN's counter-strike;

On January 7th, terrorists broke into the offices satirical news magazine Charlie Hebdo, proceeding to kill 10 of the staff, and 2 members of the National Police assigned to protect them, as well as wounding 11 others. Charlie has been known for its highly provocative satire, mocking politics and religion alike. Charlie Hebdo has been especially infamous for frequently drawing Islam's prophet, Muhammed.

Notably, in September 2012, the newspaper published a series of satirical cartoons of Muhammad, some of which featured nude caricatures of him. Given that this issue came days after a series of attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East - purportedly in response to the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims - the French government decided to increase security at certain French embassies, as well as to close the French embassies, consulates, cultural centers, and international schools in about 20 Muslim countries.

The shooters, Said and Chérif Kouachi, each used Kalashnikov-pattern rifles. Footage I've seen indicates the AKs did not have wooden furniture, and they seemed to be equipped with either folding stocks or fixed skeleton stocks, suggesting either aftermarket customization, or more likely the use of a non-Russian, Eastern European AK-type weapon. The number of shots fired was put at around 50, suggesting that the perpetrators were using civilian weapons limited to semi-auto, which are still highly restricted in France. A shotgun and RPG were also brought to the scene by the shooters.

After the shooting, France put all-hands-on-deck. Police were told to carry their weapons at all times and wear body armor if at all possible. I've seen some images of French police using Ruger Mini-14s. To provide some perspective, the Mini-14 is an older carbine that dates back to 1973, and was ubiquitous on the show The A-Team.

The next day, a female member of the Municipal Police was shot dead by an acquaintance of the perpetrators.

On January 9th, a homegrown radical Islamist named Amedy Coulibaly, who was an acquaintance of the Charlie shooters, took hostages in a kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes, Paris.

The perpetrator had a female accomplice, believed to be his wife, Hayat Boumeddiene.

The target was reportedly chosen by Coulibaly because it was Jewish-owned. The act was intended as "vengeance" against Israel for their oppression of Palestinian Muslims. 4 hostages were killed as the siege began, and 15 hostages remained.

Coulibaly was reportedly in contact with the Kouachi brothers as both sieges progressed, and told police he would kill the hostages if the brothers were harmed.

Coulibaly and his accomplice seem to have been armed with AK-type weapons similar to those used by the Kouachi brothers. Given that they knew each other, it's possible they got the weapons from the same source.

RAID

The hostage rescue mission was handled by RAID (Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion; Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence). RAID is a Counter-Terrorist of France's National Police with nationwide reach, and as a CT unit it has exclusive jurisdiction over the 21 départements closest to Paris.

Earlier in the day, police contacted the Coulibaly via phone to negotiate a peaceful solution. The hostage taker refused to negotiate and ended the conversation. However, he didn't hang up.

The police kept listening in on the terrorist, and heard him start praying. They assumed the worst: a final prayer before he executed the hostages. Thus, they were forced to act quickly, though that doesn't completely excuse the massive amount of CTs stacked up by the doors. Then again, I'm not a CT, so I can't really judge the operation's execution. Given that all hostages not killed during the opening of the incident were saved, and no RAID operatives died, I'd say it's a pretty successful operation.

Frontal-view video of the raid from the second or third story of an adjacent building:
Link

Coulibaly does an almost complete flip when he runs out the door as he gets shot. When he goes down, the RAID officers put a few more in him.

Hayat Boumeddiene escaped with the other hostages, who rushed out after Coulibaly was shot. Last I heard, she is still at large.

GIGN was responsible for taking out the Charlie Hebdo shooters.

The CTs were alerted when the gunmen were spotted at a signage production company 22 miles (35km) northeast of Paris. A man who was meeting a client there was told by the gunmen that they were police, but after they said "Leave. We don't kill civilians anyhow," >implying he suspected them and notified the police.

"When I arrived my client came out with an armed man who said he was from the police. I was in front of the door. I shook Michel's hand and I shook the hand of one of the terrorists." - Didier, man responsible for notifying police on gunmen's whereabouts

He didn't realize they were terrorists at the time, but the quote raises the question of what Michel was doing with them. He was reportedly not present during the siege, but was escorted back into the building by the gunman

The building was quickly surrounded after the police were informed.

A 26-year old male graphic designer, Lilian Lepère, remained inside the building and hid inside a cardboard box. For 3 hours during the siege, he texted the police information regarding the gunmens' location and other useful information.

When GIGN stormed the building, no casualties were taken, and both of the Kouachi brothers were killed. A weapons cache containing an RPG and several Molotov cocktails was found on-site.

What I want to know is who Michel was...