- Different Updates Included -
On January 11: Masses assembling on Place de la République, Paris.
Today, reality is outdating even the online headlines: It's not 40 but almost 50 world leaders who really joint "La Marche Républicaine", the Republican March of solidarity against extremism and religious terrorism. And it's not any longer 700.000 but more than three million people (3,7) that participate in the march all over France, some 1,5 million citizens in Paris alone. No wonder, the saying is spreading today that Paris has turned into the "capital of the world".
On January 11: World Leaders join Historic March against Extremism in Paris.
News UPDATE on January 11, 2015,
at the end of recent terrorist attacks
on civilian targets in Paris, France.
With explosions and gunfire, security forces Friday (Jan. 9) ended three days of terror around Paris, killing the two al-Qaeda-linked brothers who staged a murderous rampage at a satirical newspaper and an accomplice who seized hostages at a kosher supermarket to try to help the brothers escape. During the proceedings, the accomplice shot all of his hostages after having already shot a policewoman.
Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen said it directed the attack against the publication Charlie Hebdo to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, a frequent target of the weekly's satire. [=> Al-Qaeda statement towards Associated Press AP]
The attackers had ties both to each other and to terrorist activities that reached back years and extended from Paris to al-Qaeda in Yemen. The Yemen connection could be partly confirmed by a CNN team that met with an eye-witness in Saana. [=> CNN report on January 12]
The death toll of both incidents comprises at least 19 people, including the three gunmen. Chérif and Said Kouachi, the Charlie Hebdo assassins, were trapped and killed in Dammartin-en-Goele, near Charles de Gaulle airport. Amedi Coulibaly perished in the grocery store near Porte de Vincennes, Paris.
A fourth suspect, Coulibaly's wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, is still at large and now probably in Syria. Boumeddiene is thought to be armed and dangerous.
Link to an Istanbul airport video showing Hayat Boumeddiene
at the time of her passport check. [Al-Arabiya on January 12]
A Muslim employee of the targeted grocery store in Paris is being hailed as a hero for hiding several customers in a walk-in freezer to save them from being killed in a violent attack. Lassana Bathily, 24, led the others into the basement of his workplace when Amedy Coulibaly burst into the store just hours before the Jewish Sabbath began and killed four people in what President François Hollande called "a terrifying anti-Semitic act."
All over France: Now it's already 3,7 Million that Take to the Streets.
(Photo showing an earlier demonstration in Marseille on January 9/10.)
[Main Sources: AFP / ABC News Australia / Al-Arabiya / AP / CNN / XinHua on January 9-12]
Qur'an Surat Al-'Ahzab (The Combined Forces) 33:7
Recent visitors coming from Paris, France; the visitor from
Paris-Vincennes being directly related to the actual events.
Other visitors from France, Nigeria and Senegal interested in related subjects.
Link to the latest development in the Boko Haram attack on Baga in Northern Nigeria
that took place on January 3 and might be the bloodiest attack of that jihadist group.