Two brothers at the center of a massive manhunt in France for allegedly being the masterminds behind the attack on the office of the Paris' satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were previously banned from flying into the U.S., counterterrorism officials told Yahoo! News.
Cherif Kouachi, 32, and his 34-year-old brother Said Kouachi were added to the U.S. government's "no fly" list, which includes thousands of other names of people considered a "threat to civil aviation or national security," an unnamed U.S. counterterrorism official said. The list bans them from boarding commercial flights into and out of the U.S.
Officials did not disclose why the Kouchi brothers were considered enough of an alleged threat to end up on the government's radar. Both were initially entered into the government's Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) system, which includes some 1 million names entered into a database of those suspected of having ties to terrorism.
Once they were placed on TIDE, the brother's names were forwarded to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, officials told Yahoo! News. From there, the names were placed on several more watch lists, including the most severe one, the no fly list.
Meanwhile in Paris, France, the latest reports Thursday evening indicate the two suspects were possibly spotted in Villers-Cotterêts, located near a forest outside Paris where the manhunt is currently focused.
So far at least nine people have been taken into custody in connection to Wednesday's deadly attack , ABC News reported. Twelve people, including 10 staff members, were killed in an apparent revenge attack for the magazine's publishing of comics depicting images of the Prophet Mohammed, which is against Islam.
A third suspect, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, surrendered to police in a town located 140 miles north of Paris and is said to be cooperating.
