Amedy Coulibaly. who with a parnter killed a policewoman in Paris on Thursday, was killed in the raid of a grocery store, police union spokesman Pascal Disand said.
“The terrorist is dead,” while the hostages were freed, said Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, via Twitter.
However, Coulibaly’s partner Hayat Boumeddienne escaped in the confusion, blending in with the hostages.
Coulibaly and Boumeddienne allegedly killed police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge on Thursday.
Coulibaly and possibly Boumeddienne later took hostages at an eastern Paris kosher grocery store. Four hostages were killed during the operation.
Coulibaly demanded the freedom of the Kouachi brothers, who are the two main suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack. MSNBC says Coulibaly was a “close friend” of the brothers, while the Daily Mail says that he was mentored by key al-Qaeda leader Djamel Beghal, who is based in Britain and also mentored Cherif Kouachi.
Coulibaly and Kouachi met Beghal, who has been said to have been Osama bin Laden’s main European recruiter, while in prison in Paris, and maintained contact after they got out.
The brothers were killed earlier by security forces, at a printshop where they were holding a hostage. The third assailant, Hamyd Mourad, turned himself into police.
Coulibaly was sentenced to five years in prison in 2013 for helping Islamist Ait Ali Belkacem escape from prison. He was arrested in 2010, according to French reports. But it appears he was let out recently.
The connection between Coulibaly and Boumeddienne is also unclear, although some news reports claimed that they previously dated each other.
