| CNN | - |
(CNN)
French law enforcement officers have been told to erase their social
media presence and to carry their weapons at all times because terror
sleeper cells have been activated over the last 24 hours in the country,
a French police source who attended a ...
Source: Terror sleeper cells 'activated' in France 01:10
Story highlights
- L'Express reporter says sources tell him French authorities had lost interest Kouachi brothers months ago
- Source: Terror sleeper cells activated over the last 24 hours in France
- Hayat Boumeddiene was tracked to a place in Turkey near the Syrian border, source in Turkey says
(CNN)French
law enforcement officers have been told to erase their social media
presence and to carry their weapons at all times because terror sleeper
cells have been activated over the last 24 hours in the country, a
French police source who attended a briefing Saturday told CNN terror
analyst Samuel Laurent.
Ahmedy
Coulibaly, a suspect killed Friday during a deadly kosher market hostage
siege, had made several phone calls about targeting police officers in
France, according to the source.
It was one of a flurry of developments Saturday, including reporting in a French-language magazine that brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi had been under watch by the French, but despite red flags, authorities there lost interest in them.
L'Express national security reporter Eric Pelletier shared with CNN details of his story, for which he talked to multiple French officials.
Tipped
off by U.S. intelligence agencies that Said Kouachi may have traveled
to Yemen in July, France placed him under surveillance in November 2011
but terminated the scrutiny in June 2014 when French security services
deemed him no longer dangerous, officials told Pelletier.
The
surveillance of his brother Cherif terminated at the end of 2013 when
his phone calls suggested he had disengaged with violent extremism and
was focused on counterfeiting clothing and shoes.
A
U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr that Said Kouachi's 2011 travel
lasted three or more months and that he is believed to have trained with
al Qaeda in Yemen during that period.
French
intelligence officials believe there is a strong probability Cherif
Kouachi also traveled to Yemen for a short trip in 2011, separately from
his brother, Pelletier's sources told him.
A
Yemeni journalist and researcher, Mohammed al-Kibsi, told CNN that he
had met and spoken with Said Kouachi in Yemen in 2011 and 2012.
But
al-Kibsi, who said he met the man twice, said Said Kouachi was in Yemen
most of 2011. Kouachi first went there in 2009 and stayed until
mid-2010 before leaving briefly and returning at the end of that year,
according to al-Kibsi.
Kouachi entered Yemen multiple times with an officially issued visa, a senior Yemeni national security official told CNN.
"Said
was not being watched during the duration of his stay in Yemen because
he was not on the watch list," said the official, adding that, at the
time, Yemen's Western allies had not raised concerns about Kouachi. The
official did not specify when the visits took place.
Kouachi,
who was studying Arabic grammar, and underwear bomber Umar Farouk
AbdulMutallab previously were roommates for one to two weeks in Yemen's
capital, Sanaa, living in the same small apartment, al-Kibsi said.
AbdulMutallab is serving a life sentence for trying to bring down a
Northwest airlines flight over Detroit on Christmas in 2009 with an
underwear bomb.
Kouachi's residence
was very near to the famous Al-Tabari School and he and AbdulMutallab
used to pray together there, said al-Kibsi by telephone Saturday. It
wasn't clear when they were roommates, but AbdulMutallab was arrested
after the 2009 bombing attempt.
There has been no official confirmation of the claim that he and AbdulMutallab were associates.
The Kouachi brothers, who authorities say carried out Wednesday's deadly attack in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, were killed Friday in a shootout with French security forces outside of Paris.
France,
meanwhile, continues to cope with three days of terror that left 17
people dead. Thousands gathered on the streets for vigils Saturday and
hundreds of thousands were expected at massive rallies Sunday, along
with heads of state and other dignitaries.
Brothers trained with terror groups 02:04
Suspect's significant other reportedly in Turkey
The alert came amid word that the lone remaining suspect wanted in connection with a terrorism spree -- Hayat Boumeddiene -- entered Turkey on January 2, a Turkish prime ministry source told CNN.
Boumeddiene
was tracked by Turkish authorities to a location near the Turkey-Syria
border, according to an official in the Turkish Prime Minister's office.
Boumeddiene
arrived at the Istanbul airport on a flight from Madrid with a man.
During routine screening of passengers, the couple were flagged by
Turkey's Risk Assessment Center and a decision made to maintain
surveillance on their movements, the official said. The official in the
Turkish Prime Minister's office would not elaborate as to when
Boumeddiene was tracked to the border province.
That
means Boumeddiene may not have been in France at the time of Thursday's
deadly shooting of a policewoman in Paris, as authorities originally
believed. Authorities offered no immediate explanation of the
discrepancy, but have said she is wanted in connection with a terrorist
attack.
French authorities on Saturday
asked security officials in Spain to look into the possibility that she
transited through Spain on her way to Turkey, a source close to the
Spanish officials said.
'Nation relieved'
The attack at the Paris office of the Charlie Hebdo left 12 dead and shocked France.
"The nation is relieved tonight," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after the two standoffs concluded.
But the French government's work is not over.
There's
still a lot of healing to do, and questions to answer on how this
happened and how to prevent future attacks. Meanwhile, police continue
the hunt for Boumeddiene, Coulibaly's partner.
France will remain at a heightened security as investigations continue, Cazeneuve said after an emergency security meeting.
All
necessary measures will also be taken to ensure the safety of people
who attend a massive unity rally planned in Paris on Sunday, he said.
Extra steps will also be taken to protect religious institutions.
Cazeneuve
and other officials outlined the extraordinary security measures,
including snipers, plainclothes and anti-terror officers as well as
parking and transit restrictions, that will be in place for the rally.
European
leaders including Britain's David Cameron, Germany's Angela Merkel and
Spain's Mariano Rajoy will join French President François Hollande at
the unity march. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Turkish
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will attend, according to Russia's
Foreign Ministry and Turkish semi-official news agency Anadolu.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will take part in Sunday's march, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
Jordan's
King Abdullah II and Queen Rania will participate, Jordan's Embassy in
Washington said. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will
travel to France for the event, according to his office.
In a statement, Netanyahu said he spoke by phone with Celine Shreki, who was a hostage at the kosher market Friday.
"To
Celine and all French Jews, and to all European Jews, I would like to
say: The State of Israel is not just the place to which you turn in
prayer. The State of Israel is also your home," the statement said.
A total of 1,100 French troops are currently deployed in the Paris
region, alongside police forces, to increase security following the
attacks, the Defense Ministry said. An additional 250 soldiers will be
on duty Sunday for the march, the ministry said.
Altogether,
nearly 1,900 French troops will take part in providing additional
security across the country as part of the France's security alert
system, known as Vigipirate.
The precautions may help to ease the nerves of a country left on edge by the wave of violence.
The
targeting of the kosher grocery store has shaken Jewish communities in
particular. And amid the heightened security concerns, the Grande
Synagogue of Paris was closed Saturday for the first time since World
War II.
Rabbi Jonas Jacquelin, who
serves in a different synagogue, told CNN that an attack on one member
of the Jewish community was felt by everyone else.
But,
he said, it was important for his synagogue to stay open to demonstrate
that the community is not afraid. "We have to show to the world, we
have to show to our enemies that all of us are continuing to pray today
as we are doing every week and every Shabbat -- nothing can disturb us,"
he said.
Two sieges
Friday's
deadly events started in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where
the Kouachi brothers took refuge in a print shop in an industrial area
after two days on the run.
Hours
later, after a major police operation locked down the town, the brothers
were dead and a man who'd been hiding out in the building was freed
unharmed.
How manhunt for French terrorists ended 02:54
At
the scene of the other violent siege that capped an uneasy week in
Paris, Jewish and Muslim leaders gathered to pay their respects to the
four people who died there. They held hands and left flowers and spoke
of unity amid tragedy.
The deadly kosher grocery store standoff unfolded in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris.
Four hostages were killed, officials said. Coulibaly was killed after police moved in to end the siege.
The four victims were identified by the French Jewish publication JSSNEWS as Yohan Cohen, 22, Yoav Hattab, 21, Philippe Braham and Francois Michel Saada.
Israeli
government sources told CNN that Hollande told Netanyahu that 15 were
rescued. The four hostages were killed by the gunman before police
stormed the market, sources said.
One
of the hostages, identified only as Marie, told CNN affiliate BFMTV that
the gunman was heavily armed -- and that she was very happy to be
alive.
"As soon as he got inside, he
started shooting. He scared us because he told us: I am not afraid to
die and he said either I die or I go to jail for 40 years. He knew this
was his last day," she said.
Hollande called the Porte de Vincennes deaths an "anti-Semitic" act and urged citizens not to lash out against Muslims.
"Those who committed these acts have nothing to do with the Muslim religion," he said. "Unity is our best weapon."
On Saturday, Hollande and Cazeneuve met with several police officers injured in the raid on the Kosher market.
Ties to Islamist extremists?
While
Said Kouachi is suspected of links to al Qaeda in Yemen, Cherif Kouachi
has a long history of jihad and anti-Semitism, according to documents
obtained by CNN. In a 400-page court record, he is described as wanting
to go to Iraq through Syria "to go and combat the Americans."
Cherif Kouachi was a close associate of Coulibaly, a Western intelligence source told CNN.
Al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for orchestrating
the Charlie Hebdo attack, the founder of the magazine The Intercept, Jeremy Scahill, told CNN. CNN has not independently confirmed this claim.
A
man claiming to be Amedy Coulibaly, the hostage-taker at the Paris
grocery store, told CNN affiliate BFMTV that he belonged to the Islamist
militant group ISIS.
The Western intelligence source said Coulibaly lived with Boumeddiene, his alleged accomplice in the police shooting.
Boumeddiene
exchanged 500 phone calls with the wife of Cherif Kouachi in 2014,
according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. The wife told
investigators that her husband and Coulibaly knew each other well.
French
media outlets AFP, iTele and Le Point reported that police released
Hamyd Mourad, 18, who turned himself in Wednesday after seeing his name
on social media in connection with the Charlie Hebdo attack.
What's next for the magazine?
Charlie
Hebdo plans to go on even without its leader and cherished staffers.
It's set to publish many extra copies of its latest edition next
Wednesday.
On Friday, Charlie Hebdo staff held their editorial meeting at the Libération newspaper offices.
"I
don't know if I'm afraid anymore, because I've seen fear. I was scared
for my friends, and they are dead," said Patrick Pelloux, a columnist
for the magazine.
He and many others are defiant.
"I
know that they didn't want us to be quiet," Pelloux said of the slain
colleagues. "They would be assassinated twice, if we remained silent."
Promoted Stories
-
How to get rid of blackheads Popdust
-
Powerful Plastic: $400 For Getting A Credit Card? NextAdvisor Daily
-
13 Signs of Cancer Men Are Likely to Ignore Reader's Digest
-
Did Apple Just Show Us The Future? The Motley Fool
-
Anyone With $40 Can Become A Millionaire The Motley Foolend quote from:
No comments:
Post a Comment