France remembers victims of Charlie Hebdo attacks

The country is under a state of emergency after attacks November 13, and a police station was attacked Thursday by a man whose background is still unclear.

An oak tree, dubbed the Tree of Memory, was planted in the square at what has become the unofficial place for public mourning for victims of the city’s terror attacks, closing out a week of commemorations in France.

Johnny Hallyday – the 72-year-old rocker known as the French Elvis – sang “Un Dimanche de Janvier” (“A January Sunday”) that he penned in honor of last year’s massive march.

Worldwide desk – Residents of Paris on Sunday remembered those killed in the attacks in satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo a year ago.

She said she had been at the national stadium on November 13, where the jihadist attacks began.

President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo layed a wreath by the statue of Marianne, symbol of the French republic, in central Paris.

The Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said investigators are unsure of the man’s true identity.

The official said that the fingerprints of the dead attacker matched those of the robbery suspect, who identified himself at the time as Ali Sallah of Casablanca, Morocco.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who had visited a mosque near Paris on Saturday, said France needs more than ever, “the engagement of all Muslims”.

The man was carrying a piece of paper marked with the Islamic State flag and a claim of responsibility written in Arabic as well as a mobile phone with a German sim card.

“We can find ourselves confronted by very organised attacks with extensive logistics and coordination, and on the other hand by people who work in an isolated manner, either because of psychological instability or simply because they are following the standing order to carry out murders”, he said.

“Faced with these adversaries, it is essential that every service – police, gendarmerie, intelligence, military – work in ideal harmony, with the greatest transparency, and that they share all the information at their disposal”, he said.

In those attacks, two gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of the French satirical magazine, which had angered Islamists for its irreverent approach to Islam and publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Molins said anti-terrorism authorities were working on 215 cases involving 711 individuals in France.