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Charlie Hebdo wounds still fresh

According to the BBC, in addition to the 12 who were killed inside the newspaper’s headquarters, 11 people were injured. Three of them were wearing explosive belts, police said.

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Paris – The attacks that left at least 120 dead in Paris are the deadliest in Europe since the Madrid train bombings in March 2004.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, and no clear picture of how many attackers were involved and if any were on the run.

He said the Islamic State went on the offensive in France because “the French have been exercising their military muscle”.

This, he says, “was an attack on a way of life – they shot without discrimination”. In addition to at least two wounded people, a decapitated body was found at the site with an IS flag aside.

He argued that “there have been 17 publicly revealed attacks or foiled attacks in France since the war began in Syria – including the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks in Paris”.

On August 21, an armed man opened fire against passengers of a Thalys high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris, wounding three before being arrested.

The gunman is identified as 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayoub El Khazzani, known to intelligence services for links to radical Islam. CNN said sources reported there were six to eight attackers holding the hostages and witnesses said hostages were being killed.

In the wake of those attacks, France increased security and surveillance and has co-operated in European-wide crackdowns on suspected terrorist cells. Many users expressed belief that the Islamic State group could be behind the carnage.

A French government official says the country’s state of emergency has gone into effect and that President Francois Hollande is cancelling his trip to the G-20 meeting in Turkey.

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Twelve were killed in the initial attack on the satirical magazine, which was targeted for portraying the Prophet Mohamed on its front cover.

French soldiers mobilize near to the Place de la Bastille AFP