Charlie Hebdo Attack Anniversary: Gun-Wielding God To Feature On French Satirical Magazine’s Cover
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will mark one year since an attack on its headquarters in Paris with a cover featuring a gun-wielding God. On Jan. 7, 2015, gunmen stormed the magazine’s offices and killed 12 people including eight of its staff.
A bearded man representing God with a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder will feature on the cover, and the text will read: “One year on: The assassin is still out there,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The latest issue of the magazine will hit the newsstands Wednesday.
One million copies of the special edition will be available across France, and tens of thousands more will be dispatched overseas, AFP reported.
The attack, which was claimed by al Qaeda’s branch in the Arabian Peninsula, was carried out by three gunmen, including two brothers — Saïd and Chérif Kouachi. The gunmen were shot dead by police during three days of violence. The Charlie Hebdo massacre was followed by an attack on a kosher supermarket that left five people dead.
The special edition will reportedly include a collection of cartoons by the five Charlie Hebdo artists killed in the attack as well as several external contributors. It will also feature an editorial by cartoonist Laurent "Riss" Sourisseau, who took over the management of the magazine in the aftermath of the attack. The editorial, which is in defense of secularism, denounces "fanatics brutalized by the Koran" as well as those from other religions who hoped for an end to the magazine for "daring to laugh at the religious.” Sourisseau narrowly escaped death and was seriously injured in last year's attack.
France is set to pay tribute to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack with ceremonies that will reportedly take place under heavy security. Commemorative plaques will be unveiled Tuesday at the sites where the January attacks took place, Reuters reported, citing a city official.
A public ceremony is scheduled to take place Sunday at the Place de la Republique, the square in eastern Paris that attracted mass rallies in favor of free speech and democratic values after the Charlie Hebdo attack.
The French capital city is already under high alert after the Nov. 13 attacks in the city left 130 people dead. The attack — claimed by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS — was the second deadliest attack in Paris since the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
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