| Just the parts about the perps. |
Authorities earlier had identified the three men as Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both French and in their early 30s, and Hamyd Mourad, 18. It couldn't immediately be determined which of the suspects was killed or whether the two others were wounded.
An official told The Associated Press that the men were linked to a Yemeni terrorist network. Cherif Kouachi was convicted in 2008 of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Little information was immediately available about Mourad and Said Kouachi, but Cherif Kouachi has been suspected of involvement in terrorist groups for at least a decade. In January 2005, he and another French national were arrested in Paris as they were planning to fly to Iraq via Syria. Kouachi was described at the time as one of two deputies to the leader of an operation to send young volunteers to Iraq to fight U.S.-led forces.
Authorities linked the operation to the 19th Arrondissement Network, named for the Paris district where it was based, which is home to many Muslim families with roots in France's former North African colonies. Kouachi was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to three years in prison, 18 months of which were suspended.
The Associated Press quoted Cherif Kouachi in 2008 as saying he'd been motivated by outrage at images of torture of Iraqi inmates at the U.S. prison at Abu Ghraib. "I really believed in the idea," it quoted him as saying.
| He wanted to believe so he did, even after it was demonstrated to be way overblown. Thanks, US media. |