The White House on Wednesday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the deadly shooting attack at a French satirical newspaper that left at least 12 people dead.
“The thoughts and prayers of the president and the first lady and everyone here at the White House are with the families of those who were killed or injured in this attack,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest on MSNBC.
The French terrorism alert has since been raised to the highest level, and a manhunt is underway for the gunmen who stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Obama’s spokesman said the White House would help the French government track down the suspects, if needed.
“The United States stands ready to work with the French as we have in a variety of areas to help them conduct this investigation,” Earnest said. “And if the perpetrators are still at large, we’re going to track them down.”
And Earnest suggested that the gunmen could have ties to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — the newspaper has published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and Islamic State leaders.
“We are obviously trying to monitor what we believe is a really important threat which is the threat of foreign fighters,” Earnest said. “So it is clear that [the Islamic State] does harbor the ambition to radicalize people around the globe.”
