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French Investigators Search For 6 More Terror Suspects

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In Paris this morning, French President Francois Hollande spoke at a memorial service for three police officers killed last week by Islamist extremists. And the four people killed in an attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris were buried today in Israel. We'll hear from Jerusalem in just a moment. But first, to Paris, where expectations are building for Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine whose offices were attacked, to release its first issue since the shooting. Earlier we spoke to reporter Lauren Frayer in Paris.

This seems like really important symbolism for this magazine to come out with an issue, you know, in the wake of this.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Right. So despite the manhunt on the ground here, despite a very fluid situation in terms of the investigation, what everyone is talking about in Paris is Charlie Hebdo. The magazine will print on schedule in less than 24 hours, expecting a printing of 3 million copies. Now, just to give you a perspective, their normal circulation before these attacks was 60,000.

I went to a newsstand this morning and tried to get my name on a waiting list to buy a copy. The man behind the counter was extremely overwhelmed. He said he's been flooded with queries, and he told me to come back when they're delivered.

Now, what the magazine will consist of is a closely guarded secret. We're expecting it to feature past work of those slain cartoonists. There's been lots of speculation about the cover. One image has been leaked to the press, and it shows a cartoon of what looks like the Prophet Muhammad with a tear in his eye holding one of those now ubiquitous posters, Je suis Charlie. The headline reads, "All Is Forgiven."

GREENE: Wow. That sounds like it'll be pretty powerful when that comes out. Well, you mentioned the investigation as well, people talking about that. What's the latest?

FRAYER: So NPR has confirmed that French police are looking for six more suspects. This is new information, that the gunmen killed Friday may have had many more accomplices than previously thought. French police are describing them now as a terrorist cell based in Paris, so not lone wolves radicalized in isolation. Authorities had long suspected that the cell included more people than the gunmen who police have publicly identified. One of the suspects now being sought may be driving a car that belongs to that 26-year-old woman police have described as the partner of one of the dead gunmen. She's believed to have already fled France, possibly to Turkey and Syria.

GREENE: And, Lauren, just in the few seconds we have left, and we've heard about the security really being beefed-up in Paris. What does the city feel like right now?

FRAYER: So authorities have announced 10,000 more soldiers, 5,000 more police fanning out across the country. Thousands of police and soldiers are also deployed around Jewish schools and other potential targets. I passed by a very, very small Jewish religious office in central Paris where two French soldiers are guarding in military camouflage, big automatic weapons. The Jewish community, understandably, is very on edge here.

GREENE: All right. Lauren Frayer joining us from Paris. Lauren, thanks a lot.

FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Lauren Frayer covers India for NPR News. In June 2018, she opened a new NPR bureau in India's biggest city, its financial center, and the heart of Bollywood—Mumbai.