Quebec mosque shooting suspect surrendered to police

QUEBEC CITY, Canada — One of the two suspects held over a mosque shooting in Quebec City that left six people dead called police to surrender, authorities said Monday as they tried to piece together the gunmen’s motive.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned as a “terrorist attack” the deadly assault Sunday night on the Islamic Cultural Center, one of the worst attacks ever to have targeted Muslims in a western country.

But it remained unclear what prompted the attack.

The suspects have been identified by local media as French-Canadian Alexandre Bissonnette, and Mohamed Khadir, a Canadian of Moroccan descent.

Police declined to release the suspects’ identities at a nationally-televised news conference on Monday, saying only that both were Canadian nationals with no apparent foreign links.

“It is a domestic investigation at this time,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Martin Plante, while shedding no light on the suspects’ motives.

Six people were killed and eight were wounded in the attack. One of the suspects was arrested at the scene, and the other surrendered without incident after calling police to tell them where he was, police said.

Police said they responded to the initial reports of the shooting at 7:55 pm local time (0055 GMT), arriving within minutes at the mosque where they arrested one of the suspects.


About 15 minutes later, emergency services received a call from a man identifying himself as one of the assailants, and telling police where they could find him.

He was apprehended in his car at 9:00 pm about 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside of Quebec City. He is between 25 and 30 years old, said Denis Turcotte of the Quebec City police.

Monday morning, police searched a residence near the mosque, which is not far from Laval University and the historic heart of the four-centuries-old city.

Denis Briere, rector of the university, condemned the “odious, inhuman terrorist act.” Local media said the two suspects may have been students at the school, but officials would not confirm this.

Of the eight wounded in the shooting, five remain in critical condition, said hospital spokeswoman Genevieve Dupuis. CBB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

US warns of global ‘terror’ threat after French attacks

The United States on Friday warned Americans to beware of "terrorist actions and violence" all over the world, following the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

"Recent terrorist attacks, whether by those affiliated with terrorist entities, copycats, or individual perpetrators, serve as a reminder that US citizens need to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness," the State Department said.

The advisory is an update to its "Worldwide Caution" from October 10, 2014 and comes after three days of bloodshed in France that started on Wednesday when heavily armed Islamist gunmen burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people.

Four people were then killed Friday at a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

The State Department statement said that US-led coalition bombing raids on the radical Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria made US nationals and interests a target for reprisals, "especially in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia." — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Seven detained in hunt for Paris media killers

Seven people have been detained in the hunt for brothers suspected of gunning down 12 people in an Islamist assault on a satirical weekly, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Thursday.

The masked, black-clad gunmen burst into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine on Wednesday morning, killing some of France's most outspoken journalists and two policemen, before jumping into a car and escaping.

They are still on the run, and authorities have warned they are "armed and dangerous."

"Seven people," Cazeneuve said on French radio when asked how many people were currently being held and questioned over the attack -- the bloodiest in France in half a century.

A judicial source, who refused to be named, added that those who were being questioned are men and women who are close to the suspects, without saying where they had been detained.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls meanwhile told RTL radio that the two suspects were known to intelligence services and were "no doubt" being followed before Wednesday's attack.

They have been identified as 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.

The massacre triggered an outpouring of solidarity around the world, with outraged people from Moscow to Washington rallying in their tens of thousands under the banner "I am Charlie", in support of press freedom and the controversial Charlie Hebdo magazine. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

At least 11 dead in Paris shooting – French media

PARIS - Black-hooded gunmen shot dead at least 11 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a publication firebombed in the past after publishing cartoons lampooning Muslim leaders and the Prophet Mohammad, police said.

President Francois Hollande headed to the scene of the attack and the government said it was raising France's security level to the highest notch.

"This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it," Hollande told reporters.

Another 10 people were injured in the incident and police union official Rocco Contento described the scene inside the offices as "carnage."

"About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs [rifles]," witness Benoit Bringer told the TV station. "A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.

France is already on high alert after calls last year from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack "sickening" and said Britain stood with France in the fight against terror.

"The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press," Cameron said in a statement on his official Twitter feed.

A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a publication that has always courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders, in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.

The last tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, which has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria. — Reuters