Assailants Killed As Both Hostage Situations In France End [UPDATE]

French President Francois Hollande just delivered an address to the nation on live TV about the dual hostage situations that gripped the country today, both connected to the Charlie Hebdo attack on Tuesday, and both now ended.

It's now being reported that 3 hostages and a gunman were killed at a kosher market outside Paris, and several hostages freed. One of the hostage-takers at the supermarket reportedly threatened to kill their prisoners if the gunmen involved in a standoff north of Paris were not freed. Those two gunmen, brothers believed to be behind Wednesday's shooting, were killed in a police raid, and the hostage they had taken has been freed. There are reports that one or more attackers from the supermarket stand-off are still at large, and many conflicting reports overall.

“We need to show our determination against anything and everything that can divide us. We should be firm against racism and antisemitism," Hollande told the country. "Unity is our best weapon.”

He also addressed the possibility of other attacks. "We have reinforced protection of our public spaces, to guarantee that we can live quietly, in peace, so that at no moment we will be subject to risk and threats," Hollande said. "But we must remain vigilant.”

Hollande urged the people of France to join him and several other world leaders, including the heads of Spain, Germany and the UK, in a planned anti-terrorism conference on Sunday. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be in attendance.

President Hollande described the hostage-taking at the supermarket as a "terrifying anti-Semitic act." Earlier today the French authorities shut down Le Marais, a historically Jewish neighborhood now filled with shops, in response to an apparent threat, and Israel has requested extra security for synagogues and other Jewish institutions. The supermarket where one of the sieges occurred is a kosher market and an Algerian terrorist organization has called for attacks against Jews. Many mosques have also been attacked in France this week, as well as kebab shops, in a wave of anti-Muslim retaliation.

Obama, in a separate statement this afternoon, said he believed the immediate threat was over but that the US would stand by France. "I want people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have been directly impacted. We grieve with you. We fight alongside you to uphold our values, the values that we share — universal values that bind us together as friends and as allies."

Earlier, a French TV station revealed that it spoke to one of the Kouachi brothers and the supermarket gunman by phone on Friday morning, after the hostage situation had begun. BFMTV says it was trying to reach the attackers inside the printing factory and one of them answered the phone.

They quote Coulibaly, the man believed to have held 6 hostages at a kosher supermarket before being killed, as saying “them on Charlie [Hebdo], me on the police” — seeming to establish that the two were collaborating.

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Two hostage situations outside Paris have ended, according to multiple reports, with the suspects dead and the hostages freed.

According to the AP, the two brothers suspected of carrying out Wednesday's Charlie Hebdo massacre were hiding in a printing factory with a hostage. Police stormed the building and killed both brothers. Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, had been surrounded by a swarm of police and SWAT teams since Friday morning local time in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris. AFP reports one police officer was injured in the operation, and the hostage is safe.

A second hostage situation at a nearby kosher grocery store ended with the perpetrator dead and the hostages escaping, according to reports. That man, who'd held up to 6 hostages, reportedly threatened to kill them if the brothers were harmed. Le Monde reports that the man killed was Amedy Coulibaly, 32.

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9:00 AM EST: wo hostage situations are developing in France, both likely related to Wednesday's attack on Charlie Hebdo newspaper, which killed 12 people.

The New York Times is reporting that two brothers suspected in the Charlie Hebdo attacks are cornered inside a printing house near Charles de Gaulle Airport. They're reportedly in contact with police by phone and have taken a hostage. The suspects claim they "want to be martyrs."

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor says there is a second hostage situation taking place at a kosher market in Porte de Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris. There are police reports that there are "multiple hostages and wounded at the scene."

According to France 24, it's believed that the gunman killed a policewoman in Montrouge yesterday before taking hostages at the market.

Paris' terror threat has been raised to the highest possible level while Montrouge is on lockdown.

Below, a live news feed from Paris. This is a developing story, and we will update as more information becomes available.