The dark past of the French terror brothers

One of the two suspects wanted by French police over the bloody raid on the Paris office of magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead had been previously convicted on terrorism charges.

Eighteen-year-old suspect Hamyd Mourad reportedly handed himself in to police after learning he was a suspect but brothers Said Kouachi, 34 and Cherif Kouachi, 32, are believed to be on the run.

Reports suggest the brothers have been located at a property in Reims, northeast of Paris.

One French security official who declined to be named warned that "there will be a showdown" with the men who are suspected of being heavily armed.

The Kouachi brothers are believed to be the orphans of Algerian immigrants who grew in Rennes, in France's northwest, French newspaper Liberation reports.

The paper describes Cherif Kouachi as an "occasional Muslim" who worked as a sports instructor before he became radicalised by the US invasion of Iraq and highly-publicised images of human rights abuses at Abu Gharib prison.

In 2005 Cherif was arrested with another French national for planning to fly to Iraq to take part in the war against US forces.

He was sentenced to three years jail in 2008, including a suspended sentence of 18 months.

The brothers are alleged to have links to a Yemeni terrorist network and are believed to have returned to France from Syria in the last year.

A witness to last night's attack told reporters that one of the attackers had said "you can tell the media it's al Qaeda in Yemen".

Not much is known about Mr Mourad but he is believed to have recently graduated from a high school outside Reims.