But with one suspected terrorist still at large. It began early today when the two kouachi brothers believed responsible for wednesdays terror attack were spotted not far from Charles De Gaulle airport. After a firefight with police they took a hostage at a nearby printing business. Just hours later in paris, a third gunman stormed a kosher supermarket and took several hostages. Hes thought to be the same man who gund down the Police Officer yesterday. Today we learned he does have ties to the kouachi brothers. Both hostage situations ended around the same time late in the afternoon paris time. First, there was shots and explosions heard where the kouachi brothers were holed up. They were both killed in that fight. Very soon after that police in paris stormed the supermarket. [ gunfire ] the terrorist gunman was killed in that incident as well. Four hostages were also killed. Television cameras captured several hostages fleeing from that market. A fourth suspect was named by france today, a woman tied to the supermarket attacker. Shes still at large and police are actively looking for her. Late today french Prime Minister francois hollandee addressed his country calling for unity. He said france must stand together against racism and antisemitism. But there was a stark indication of how on edge the city feels tonight. For the First Time Since nazis occupied paris in world war ii the grand synagog wouldnt hold a shabot service this weekend. Americans grieve with france and will fight with france to uphold our shared values. The streets of paris, the world has seen once again what terrorists stand for. They have nothing to offer but hatred and human suffering. And we stand for freedom and hope and the dignity of all human beings. Thats what the city of paris represents to the world. And that spirit will endure forever. Long after the scourge of terrorism is banished from this world. Im joined by nbcs lester holt, and michael kay, International Correspondent and former British Air Force officer. Lester, you first, give us the story, the police story today, the ending of those two sieges with death. Well we saw some dots connected here. Lets go back to yesterday when we heard about a policewoman shot in a paris suburb. And the person had an automatic weapon a bulletproof vest but police were saying no connection to the terror attack the day earlier. Well, today they said there was a connection. That person Amedy Coulibaly, is the man they believe took the hostages at the market near where i am in eastern paris. He was and he admitted he talked to french media today on the phone during all this and admitted that he was part of this plot with the other two men, the brothers and that they had been in contact. His job was to take care of police. He said their job was to take care of Charlie Hebdo. We saw that play out on this end. It started this morning with the hostage siege, the gunfight outside of paris near the airport. Then we started hearing a wave of sirens across paris. We knew something was up and thats when we got word of a shooting here at the market just down the street from us. Four hostages were killed. The early indications, they were shot by the terrorists not during that police raid which ultimately killed the shooter in this case. There were also some Police Officers, three of them wounded and two civilians as well. Tell us what you can about this other suspect and terrorist, this woman on the loose. What do they make of her . She was involved with the kosher market there. She may have escaped in that crowd of people we saw rushing out in those pictures perhaps. Her name is hayat boumediene. She was on a wanted, a be on the lookout poster that was put out earlier today along with Amedy Coulibaly coulibaly, the shooter in the market. Its not clear, but she is unaccounted for. There is some concern that they were together, and she was in the market and may have slipped out during the confusion as the hostages made their escape after the initial raid. Its not clear. There are pictures circulating in french media today of her at one Point Holding what looks like a cross bow. Pictures of the two of them together, but she is considered an accomplice in the shooting of that policewoman a day earlier in south of paris. Right now, still on edge a bit here. The sense of this being over to an extent but as long as she is out there, someone thats said to be armed and dangerous, officials remain very vigilant. While the brothers were holding a hostage at the printing press, the younger brother, cherif called a french journalist and said he was sent by al qaeda in yemen and but refused to say if there were other people involved in the plot and he gave his own justification for his actions. Lets listen. [ speaking in french. Matt campbell there you have the somewhat questionable rationale of the justification of killing people in revenge, because of the way they described the prophet in their cartooning. But saying that they are somehow good people because they dont kill women, and they dont kill civilians. Your assessment of that . Well i think what is very striking about this situation and particularly the references to iraq and to syria, is that this is in some ways the nightmare scenario of the Security Forces in france and elsewhere. We have two young men, who are french citizens of algerian descent. At least one of wrom may have traveled to yemen to train, possibly both of them may have done that, and who have now come home and are either taking it upon themselves or in some form of loose coordination with groups elsewhere, carried out a quite deadly attack. So this is in effect, conflict in the middle east coming home to paris in a visceral way with quite tragic results throughout the week. Well is the motive here as you hear it, vengeance for someone who offended the name of the prophet, or is it anger about the wests actions against the isis forces in iraq and in syria . Which is it . I think its very hard to unpick motives and none of us are inside the minds of these two young men. However, they did choose their target for a reason clearly. Charlie hebdo has been a very provocative magazine. It has offended some muslim citizens of france and elsewhere with some of its cartoons. Its offended lots of other people Christians Jews and so on. Its an equal opportunity offender, but these two men did choose to attack Charlie Hebdo hebdo, they did not choose to attack bloomberg or le monde. They did choose their target for a reason. But i think its hard to separate that from the larger context in which they became radicalized. Michael kay, wrap this up in this segment. Talk about the atmosphere in paris, the reality that one of the suspects is believed to still be on the loose. And that we dont know what further is going to happen. Weve discovered there is a connection among the three men. Coulibaly of course was operating in some implicit fashion with the twot kouachi brothers, and now we have a fourth suspect. We dont know how wide it goes though. I want to focus, chris, on how this has actually galvanized the French Public. We saw as light started to fade on the first day after the Charlie Hebdo attack we saw tens of thousands of the French Public coming out in cities all over france. I think that was the perfect response. Id also like to focus on the psychology of what happened today in terms of the way that the outcome played out. Weve got to remember and there are a lot of conversations, ive been reporting on this since 6 00 this morning. Conversations about how this might end and the options that these brothers had, whether it would be a shootout, or whether it would be sort of the selfsacrificing suicide bomber type m. O. That might have played out, because that gives amazing collateral and it gives the shock and awe that people like aqap and isis are after. But it didnt happen like that. It happened as a reaction to the onscene commanders in both locations taking the decision and basically taking the actions that ended the siege. Now, they did that with the safety of the hostage in mind. They did that with the safety of civilians at mind. But it was an action taken by them. Psychologically, thats hugely important moving forward. Does that mean that they broke the chance of these people . I mean historically, every time you set up a barricade situation, youre basically setting up a suicide situation. Barricades fall. The people inside them usually die rather quickly. Did you think they were aiming at a more sustained drama, that would have grabbed the headlines for days . We just know from the actions weve seen in syria through isis and aqap they go for the shock and awe aspect. They do that through the selfsacrificing mission. Its basically the thing that creates the headlines. I think what the french authorities did today, they prevented that ultimate shock and awe as the ultimate end to this sequence of events. I think psychologically thats a good thing. Because that sends a message, the french do not tolerate this type of action and thats the message that needs to go out to potential extremists and islamic fundamentalists who are thinking about this. Weve got to remember chris, that holistically contagion is an important aspect here. Contagion at the tactical level, where people might think about doing this tomorrow or the next week or the next month, but also contagion of that ideology. And i think the way the french handled this and the way the authorities handle this was extremely calculated today. But i would also say as well france is very unique at the geopolitical level. Weve got to be cautious when were drawing alignments in what that means in the threat to the u. S. And the uk. Because france doesnt just have this threat from the iraq and syria. Weve spoken about over a thousand islamic extremists that have made their way to syria. But we must not forget the historical aspects of frances involvement in north africa. North africa is predominantly muslim. You have boko haram in africa and these are offshoots of aqap. So france have it from the east but also from the south. And the borders are very porous in france. So france is kind of this melting pot, if you like of what we saw today. Let me get back to lester holt. My colleague. Lester, is the big story tonight this one suspect still on the loose . Is that where we are in terms of this narrative tonight . It is. It is the narrative tonight because even the president of france today reminded folks that this battle goes on that the risk is still high. I dont know if he was speaking in larger terms, or the fact this woman is still out there, but clearly all this has tapped into something this country is grappling with right now. The fact that these are all french young men who perpetrated this terror on such a Large Population here in france. People are walking about tonight. The police tape has come down. It all feels very normal, but it will take a while to get over this. This place was rattled. People are on edge. I ended up in the middle of police with guns who were responding to another false alarm that had everyone on edge today and talking to people and just were not used to this. We dont know what to do. Were fearful. We dont know whats going to come next. And i think with this other suspect still out there, though not necessarily involved in what we saw today, we dont know that. Theres still going to be some anxiety. So fortunate to have you over there, my friend. Lester holt in paris. Matt campbell theyre all staying with us. We have this dramatic story. Up next well find out who the terrorists were, who theyre working with we hope to get that, and whats being done to thwart future attacks. All that plus what this attack means for europe politically. Will france and other countries go hard right and clampdown on muslim immigrants . Thats a possibility. Already starting to happen. And the left versus the right, politics at home. The right continues to try to pin attacks like this on president obama. Our coverage continues in just a minute. Welcome to the most social car weve ever designed. The allnew nissan murano. Nissan. Innovation that excites. In my world, wall isnt a street. Return on investment isnt the only return im looking forward to. For some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. Which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. Our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. Start investing with as little as fifty dollars. So youre looking for a loan . Hows your credit . I know i have an 810 fico score, thanks to the tools and help on experian. Com. And your big idea is hot dogs shaped like hamburgers . Nope. Hamburgers shaped like hot dogs. Thats not really in our wheelhouse. You dont put it in a wheelhouse. You put it in your mouth. Get your credit swagger on. Become a member of experian credit tracker and find out your fico score powered by experian. Fico scores are used in 90 of credit decisions. Welcome back to hardball. Were about to play you the voice of one of the heb do attackers who attacked the parisian magazine shortly before he was killed today in which he said al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is behind his attack. Cherif kouachi, we are telling you that you are one of the prophets defenders and i, Cherif Kouachi was sent by yemens al qaeda. Yes yes. So i went there and it was Anwar Al Awlaki who financed me. And kouachi answered before he was killed. He said he was put there by the leader of al qaeda. And late today the Al Qaeda Group itself took credit for the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The Associated Press reported a member of al qaedas branch in yemen says the group directed attack against the magazine in paris as revenge for the honor of islams prophet muhammad. But that claim could not be verified by nbc. Anyway, the extent of coordination with al qaeda and the paris terrorists is still being investigated, but what does that tell us about the global terrorist threat right now . Were back with michael kay, and also with us john goel. Your views as to how you put the puzzle together of a claim by cherif the younger of the two brothers involved in going after the magazine and they were killed today, both of them. They just claim to be part of al qaedas operation, and also what were hearing from al qaeda. Your thoughts first, michael . I think, chris, the first thing weve got to do is lay out the context in terms of isis and al qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula. Isis is all about establishing terrorist across the middle east and that has been headed up by the selfproclaimed caliph baghdadi. Aqap isnt about territory. Aqap is about ideology. And aqaps m. O. Special mandate is to launch attacks on the west. Now, we know through evidence over the past couple of months that isis and aqap are at serious odds. So what i find a little bit confusing here, chris, is youve got the kouachi brothers who are pledging this allegiance to aqap and saying they were sent by aqap. And then you have the other terrorist who launched the attack in central paris who is claiming it was on behalf of isis. So theres a disconnect there. Weve got to be cautious about the links that were drawing between what kouachi is saying and just how strong the links are between al awlaki who he is saying told him to launch the attack from 2011 and financed it and just how strong those links or the push was from aqap. I think the intelligence communities need a little time to breathe on this. The other thing, i spent time in baghdad, working with special forces hitting high value assets most nights and the intelligence we worked off, in terms of spider network, that takes, day, weeks, months years to coordinate. Through electronic intelligence drones, pattern of life looking through cameras. But also human intelligence. So we have to be careful not to draw conclusions early and let the Intelligence Community do their job. But we know the kouachi brothers have been known for almost a decade and that started in 2005. So the Intelligence Community have got a head start on this. Give us your sense about how the most of the people watching this program right now in the United States are trying to figure out what does this tell us about anger, about our role over there, in terms of fighting isis . Whats this saying about the cultural war going on between western tolerance and deep religious sensitivity on the part of the islamist fundamentalists about their religion . How does it all fit together. Ideology is a key component in the radicalization of individuals, especially in the case of the kouachi brothers. There are a number of different layers that do need investigation. The authorities in france will have to take their time in looking at it. The different dynamics at play are of course yemen, that has been mentioned, where its believed at least one of the kouachi brothers had visited. Interestingly enough in 2011 which is the same year that Anwar Al Awlaki was killed in a drone strike. His last edict was for his followers to target all the publications that have printed controversial cartoons. The other dynamic is that Cherif Kouachi had been part of a network in 2004 to send people to go fight in the insurgency in iraq. That was connected to za cary who would take westerners and behead them on camera. All these elements different elements of ideology. But if we look at counterterrorism, we have to look at the ideas that indoctrinate young, impressionable people. Arresting, capturing, killing terrorists is not enough. Unfortunately europe hasnt dealt with that aspect as yet. Is there any way to determine what with the triggers are . Whats at stake . Was it placing all of our troops in the holy land of mecca during the first iraq war, what was called the gulf war . Was that what triggered al qaeda into action . How do we look or is it just a long thing that was building up over years . Is there any steps that can be taken or not taken to ameliorate this hatred, or is it just somethin