– ‘Armed and dangerous’ –
Arrest warrants were issued for Cherif Kouachi, 32, a known jihadist convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq, and his 34-year-old brother Said. Both were born in Paris to Algerian parents and were orphaned at an early age.
A senior US administration official told AFP that one of the two brothers was believed to have trained with Al-Qaeda in Yemen while another source said that the pair had been on a US terror watch list “for years”.
The brothers were both flagged in a US database as terror suspects, and also on the no-fly list, meaning they were barred from flying into the United States, the officials said. READ: Disunited? Non, say the French in face of magazine massacre
Cazeneuve meanwhile said nine people had been detained as part of the operation.
Mourad Hamyd, an 18-year-old suspected of being an accomplice in the attack, handed himself in, police sources said. It was not clear what role, if any, he may have played in the attack.