Masked terrorists toting AK-47s and shouting “Allahu akbar” carried out a commando-style raid on an Islam-mocking Paris newspaper Wednesday, methodically killing 12 people — including a Muslim cop they gunned down on the sidewalk as he pleaded for his life.  The bloodbath at the satirical paper Charlie Hebdo was precisely planned for a weekly editorial meeting at the paper’s office near the famed Bastille monument, the self-proclaimed “al Qaeda” gunmen bursting in seeking out journalists by name whom they planned to slaughter, witnesses and cops said.  The jihadis headed straight for the paper’s editorial director and cartoonist, Stephane Charbonnier — widely known by his pen name Charb — killing him and his police bodyguard at about 11:30 a.m. local time, said Christophe Crepin, a ­police spokesman.  Two of the men could be seen on a video that shows them as they left the newspaper building, one shouting “Allah!” and firing his assault rifle at pursuing cops.  The black-masked jihadist wounded one officer, a 42-year-old Muslim policeman named Ahmed Merabet.  The video shows the two gunmen run across the street to stalk the prone officer — who held up his arms and begged for mercy.  “Do you want to kill me?” the pinned-down cop asked.  “OK, chief,” the masked terrorist replied before shooting him dead, The Times of London reported.  A witness described the cowardly execution.  “They knew exactly what they had to do and exactly where to shoot. While one kept watch and checked that the traffic was good for them, the other one delivered the final coup de grâce,” he said.  “It was a butchery, a carnage,” said Rocco Contento, a police spokesman.  In a video clip on TV network iTELE, the men can be heard shouting: “We have killed Charlie Hebdo! We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed!”  After a massive manhunt, an 18-year-old implicated in the attack — identified as Hamyd Mourad — surrendered to cops, according to the AFP news service.  The two other killers were still on the loose. Authorities identified them as brothers Saïd and Cherif Kouachi, 34 and 32 respectively, Franco-Algerians who returned from Syria last summer. Cherif reportedly spent three years in prison for participating in an Islamist gang.  Also killed were three of the paper’s best-known cartoonists, Georges Wolinski, 80; Jean Cabut, 75, known as Cabu; and Bernard Verlhac, who drew under the name Tignous. Bernard Maris, 67, an economist and contributor, was killed along with other staffers and a maintenance man who directed the attackers to the newspaper’s door.  Witnesses said the gunmen spoke perfect, unaccented French.  Cherif was part of an Iraqi jihadi network in Paris and in May 2008 was sentenced to three years in prison with 18 months suspended in relation to terror charges.  Mourad was believed to be from Reims, though his nationality was not immediately revealed. Two were believed to be the gunmen while the third was a getaway driver, authorities said.  The suspected gunmen in Wednesday’s terror attack in Paris.  France raised its alert to the highest level, and reinforced security at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation. Top government officials were holding an emergency meeting.  Forensic experts examine the car believed to have been used as the escape vehicle by the gunmen.  Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher in front of the Charlie Hebdo offices.  Paris prosecutor’s spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre confirmed 12 people were killed.  French President Francois Hollande arrives at the offices of Charlie Hebdo.  President Hollande said the attack was “a terrorist attack, without a doubt.”  Charlie Hebdo has been repeatedly threatened for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, among other controversial sketches, and its offices were firebombed in 2011.  The scene in front of the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.  A police car riddled with bullet holes  Police inspect damage after a collision between police cars at the scene of the shooting.  A copy of Charlie Hebdo  The extremist Islamic State group has threatened to attack France, and minutes before the attack, Charlie Hebdo had tweeted a satirical cartoon of that extremist group’s leader giving New Year’s wishes.  French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (center left) and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo (center right) arrive at the newspaper offices.  Police investigators arrive at the scene.  France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech in Paris following the attack.  Paris prosecutor Francois Molins speaks to the press after arriving at the Charlie Hebdo offices.  Police secure the vehicle allegedly used by the gunmen.  Take a look back at Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe's legendary romance on their 61st wedding anniversary.  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Speaker of the House John Boehner is sunkissed (and kissing), critters cuddle in the snow, Pope Francis celebrates the Epiphany and more.  Critters are counted at the London Zoo, Miami celebrates same-sex marriage, rallies against anti-Islam groups pop up in Germany and more.  A family of snow monkeys cuddles in the cold, an infant cuddles with a python, President Barack Obama keeps cool in Hawaii and more.  Double tornadoes, lightning storms and supercells, oh my! A storm chaser documents a year of everything from apocalyptic weather to literal sunshine and rainbows.  A witness quoted by the “20 Minutes” daily newspaper said one of the assailants cried out: “Tell the media that it is al Qaeda in Yemen!” And a police official said the men had links to the ­Yemeni terrorist network.  Another 11 people were wounded in the carnage, which began when the masked gunmen killed the building’s maintenance man and confronted Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Corrine Rey.  “I had gone to pick up my daughter at day care, arriving in front of the building, where two masked and armed men brutally threatened us,” said Rey, who signs her work as “Coco.”  “They said they wanted to go up to the offices, so I tapped in the [security] code,” said Rey, who hid with her daughter under a desk.  The newspaper’s editor in chief, Gerard Biard, who was in London at the time, said, “I am shocked that people can have attacked a newspaper in France, a secular republic. A newspaper is not a weapon of war.”  But Charbonnier was famously quoted in 2012 after an earlier controversy saying, “I am not afraid of retaliation. I have no kids, no wife, no car, no credit. I prefer to die standing than living on my knees.”
The cold-blooded, black-hooded gunmen who mowed down 12 people at a satirical weekly in Paris were described by some experts as highly trained and meticulously prepared fighters with combat experie...