New York Post

WORLD STANDS BY YOU

Pledge to France

- By DANIKA FEARS

World leaders breathed a big sigh of relief on Friday after French police killed the two terrorists behind the Charlie Hebdo massacre and a third fanatic who had seized a kosher market.

Before an education speech in Knoxville, Tenn., President Obama expressed his hope that the bloody rampage across Paris, which left 17 innocent people dead by Friday afternoon, had finally ended.

“We’re hopeful that the immediate threat is now resolved, thanks to the courage and profession­alism of the French personnel on the ground, but the French government continues to face the threat of terrorism and has to remain vigilant,” he said.

Cops staged two nearsimult­aneous raids Friday: one at a printing plant where brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi were hiding out after murdering journalist­s at Charlie Hebdo’s Paris headquarte­rs — and the other at a Jewish supermarke­t where another terrorist, Amedy Coulibaly, was holding shoppers at gunpoint.

All three terrorists died during the raids, but Coulibaly’s wife and alleged accomplice, Hayat Boumeddien­e, remains at large.

“The situation is fluid,” Obama warned. “[French] President [Francois] Hollande’s made it clear that they’re going to do whatever is necessary to protect their people.”

He pledged his support to French citizens, calling the country “our oldest ally.”

“I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow,” he said.

European leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, will gather Sunday for a “unity rally” in Paris’ Place de la République.

“We will not allow fear to change us #Europe,” Renzi tweeted Friday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will be attending the rally, also pledged her support.

“I think it is an important sign of FrancoGerm­an friendship that we stand side by side at a time like this,” she said.

“I am impressed with how the French people are standing together in the face of this barbaric attack.”

Hollande phoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the sieges ended Friday afternoon.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu asked the president of France to keep up the increased security on Jewish institutio­ns even after things return to normal,” an Israeli government source told AFP.

Meanwhile, even the head of the Hezbollah condemned the attacks.

Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that the slaughter had insulted Islam more than “even those who have attacked the messenger of God through books depicting the prophet or making films depicting the prophet or drawing cartoons of the prophet,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

People all over the world have lit candles and laid flowers before French embassies as they grieve the 12 slain at Charlie Hebdo.

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