With explosions and gunfire, security forces on Friday ended a three-day terror spree around Paris, killing the two al-Qaida-linked brothers who staged a murderous rampage at a satirical newspaper and an associate who seized a kosher supermarket to try to help them escape.

At least seven people were killed Friday -- the three terrorists and at least four hostages -- a policewoman was killed Thursday and 12 people were massacred in the Paris newspaper attack Wednesday. Sixteen hostages were freed Friday, one from the printing plant where the two brothers were holed up and 15 others from the Paris grocery store.

Said and Cherif Kouachi, the brothers who attacked the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, came out with guns blazing Friday evening after an all-day hostage siege at a printing plant northeast of Paris, a French police official said.

Coulibaly had threatened to kill his hostages if French authorities launched an assault on the two brothers, a police official said.

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