Officials: 3 hostage-takers dead after France standoffs

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French police stormed a printing plant north of Paris on Friday, freeing a hostage and killing two brothers linked to al-Qaida who were suspected of slaying 12 people at a Paris newspaper two days ago.

A security official says the brothers came out firing, prompting the assault by police. The official was not authorized to speak about the sensitive operations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Security forces had surrounded the building for most of the day. After the explosions, police SWAT forces could be seen on the roof of the building and one police helicopter landed near it.

Another official, police union representative Christophe Crepin, said it appeared that a gunman who took hostages at a kosher market had also died in a nearly simultaneous raid there.

France has been high alert since the country’s worst terror attack in decades — the massacre Wednesday in Paris at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.