PARIS—France’s capital was transformed into a war zone as a three-day manhunt for militants who attacked the magazine Charlie Hebdo ended Friday when security forces in simultaneous raids killed three men suspected in the slaying of 17 people, including four hostages at a kosher grocery.  The carnage played out in a multifront battle that frayed the nerves of a nation already on edge over the state of its security and social cohesion.  By the time the smoke cleared, police had killed Said Kouachi, 34 years old, and his brother Chérif Kouachi, 32—the two gunmen suspected of Wednesday’s attack on the French magazine. Authorities had cornered the French-born brothers at a printing facility near the capital’s main airport.  On the city’s eastern edge, meanwhile, police stormed a kosher grocery where an alleged confederate of the two brothers held several people hostage at gunpoint. The man, Amedy Coulibaly, 32 years old, was killed. Officials said they believed he killed four hostages before police raided the store.  On Thursday, Mr. Coulibaly allegedly shot and killed a female police officer in a southern suburb of Paris. Authorities continued searching Friday for a woman, Hayat Boumediene, in connection with the officer’s killing.  As the violence unfolded Friday, France saw three native sons, hailing from one of Europe’s largest Muslim populations, attacking their countrymen on behalf of terrorist groups a continent away.  Political fallout from the attacks risks deepening the alienation of France’s five million-strong Muslim minority—a social and economic rift that has long made the country a powder keg for unrest.  “France isn’t finished with the threats facing it,” President François Hollande said in an address to the nation. “Unity is our best weapon.”  While under siege Friday, the gunmen conducted phone interviews with French television. Chérif Kouachi said he had trained in Yemen and had received financing by an al Qaeda faction to launch attacks in France. Mr. Coulibaly allegedly told French TV he was acting on behalf of the terror group Islamic State.  The terror crisis began in the early hours of Wednesday morning as two men wearing balaclavas, military fatigues and carrying AK-47 rifles walked into the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo and opened fire. The barrage left 11 people dead, including the publisher and some of France’s most celebrated cartoonists.  Fleeing the scene, the brothers evaded several police cars and killed one officer at point-blank range. In an abandoned getaway car, the brothers left behind Molotov cocktails, a GoPro camera and an important piece of evidence—the national identity card of Said Kouachi.  That clue led investigators to Mr. Kouachi’s brother, Chérif, who had been convicted in 2008 for belonging to a terrorist group. Prosecutors said Chérif Kouachi had also traveled to Yemen in 2011.  The slaughter at Charlie Hebdo sparked anger around the world. The magazine had for years stirred outrage and death threats with its caricatures lampooning Islam, just one of its many targets of satire.  On Thursday, a policewoman directing traffic around a car accident in the southern Parisian suburb of Montrouge was shot and killed. Police homed in on Mr. Coulibaly after recovering a balaclava that contained his DNA.  Mr. Coulibaly later claimed responsibility for the killing, saying he had “synchronized” the move with the Kouachi brothers.  On Friday, the Kouachi brothers slipped past a massive police search operation in the forested area northeast of the city, authorities said. In the early hours of the day, they hijacked a Peugeot 206 and headed toward Paris.  The brothers didn’t get far, running into a police blockade. Police, after a short gunfight, chased the gunmen into an industrial district near Charles de Gaulle airport. On foot, the brothers took refuge in a small printing facility as police sealed off the area. Helicopters circled the building, snarling air traffic.  Unbeknown to the brothers, Lilian Lepère, an employee of the print shop, was hiding upstairs, authorities said. He proved crucial with text messages to police describing the whereabouts of the two gunmen.  Across town, Mr. Coulibaly walked into Hyper Cacher, a kosher market on the eastern edge of Paris, and fired an automatic rifle.  Police, now with a second standoff, sealed off a main Paris thoroughfare in the middle of rush-hour.  Mr. Coulibaly threatened to kill hostages in the market if police didn’t allow the Kouachi brothers to leave the print facility unharmed, police said.  North of Paris, meanwhile, negotiators from France’s elite police group were frustrated after trying unsuccessfully to reach the two brothers by cellphone.  As the standoff lingered, police ordered local residents to remain barricaded in their houses and evacuated children from nearby schools.  As dusk fell, security forces made their move.  In the suburb north of Paris, the Kouachi brothers wedged open a door and sprayed gunfire toward police. Authorities responded with stun grenades and sniper fire, prosecutors said, killing the two men.  Moments later, a battery of police with shields and assault rifles assembled in block formation outside the kosher grocery in a scene captured live on TV. With the body of one hostage on the floor, police inched toward the market entrance and shot Mr. Coulibaly. Frantic hostages streamed from the building.  Inside, police found the bodies of four hostages. Five other hostages were injured, two seriously. Two police were hit by bullets in the leg.  Late Friday, police were seeking Ms. Boumediene, a girlfriend of Mr. Coulibaly who investigators said had been in frequent contact with the wife of Chérif Kouachi.  As calm returned to the capital, residents were left to assess the fallout.  “Clearly something is broken in France,” said Hervé Laurent, a 52-year-old business man.  Near the kosher grocery, a 60-yearold Jewish resident Daniel Corcos said he planned to move to Tel Aviv, warning that others were likely to leave France the wake of the attacks. “If you think a lot of Jews left France last year, this year the number is going to be five times higher,” said Mr. Corcos, a volunteer at a synagogue in eastern Paris, who had come to visit the scene of the crime.  Another victim of this week’s chaos was France’s deep-rooted ambition of integrating its Muslim minority into the fabric of Republican society.  Only five years earlier, the French government had regarded Mr. Coulibaly as a model. In 2009, Mr. Coulibaly was an employee of Coca-Cola Co., earning him a spot in a special ceremony hosted by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Élysée Palace.  On Friday, authorities said, Mr. Coulibaly stormed into the kosher grocery with an announcement for shoppers: “You know who I am, don’t you?”  –Jason Chow, William Horobin, Ruth Bender, Inti Landauro, Sam Schechner and Blandine Hénault contributed to this article.  Write to Stacy Meichtry at stacy.meichtry@wsj.com and David Gauthier-Villars at David.Gauthier-Villars@wsj.com
Police killed three gunmen who rampaged in and out of the French capital this week, ending their three-day spree of violence. Police launched simultaneous assaults Friday on the gunmen who held hostag