An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 21 for their involvement with insurgent groups such as al-Qaida. They had come to the notice of the authorities when they recruited jihadis to fight in Iraq and had served time in Fleury- Mérogis prison where they had met and become followers of Djamel Beghal. Police negotiators talked to the insur- gents for between eight to nine hours but to no avail. Accordingly, French police commandos made ready for an assault. Having hacked the CCTV cameras inside the printing works and also shutting down all mobile communications in the area, the commandos launched simultaneous attacks on the factory and the supermarket. At 16:30hrs, four explosions were heard outside the printing works and at 17:00hrs police commandos landed on the roof of the building and a helicopter landed near- by. Before the police stormed the building, the gunmen came running out, opening fire on the police. Both gunmen were shot dead and their hostage, Lilian Lepére, was rescued unharmed. At the supermarket, police commandos stormed the building and killed Coulibaly and rescued the hostages held there. Within a period of three days, in one of Europe's most prestigious cities, the three gunmen had killed 17 people and injured many more. on the 11th January an estimated 2 million people, including more than 40 world leaders, descended on Paris for a rally of national unity. Another 3.7 million people joined demonstra- tions across France and the phrase Je suis Charlie (French for 'I am Charlie') became a common sight as a slogan of support at the rallies and in social media. Many security analysts feared that this attack would be the first in a series of similar opera- tions, and as the French nation grieved for their dead and cared for the traumatised and wounded, other European police and intelligence agencies stepped up their security mea- sures, hoping that this type of lone wolf attack would not happen on their watch. French soldiers secure the access to a Jewish school in Paris. © AP Photo/ Thibault Camus Police deployed next to the slogan "Je Suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) after the attacks that occurred in January 2015. © AFP Photo/ Joel Saget A French soldier patrols on 14th January 2015 in Paris. © AFP/Getty Images/Martin Bureau Paris rally in support of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, Place de la Republique on 11th January 2015. © Olivier Ortelpa Members of the French GIPN intervention police force secure a neighbourhood in Longpont, northeast of Paris. © Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

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