The satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo whose Paris offices were attacked by gunmen today had its old building burned down in 2011 after printing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.

Editor Stephane Charbonnier was also pictured in Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire on a list of nine men Al Qaeda was targetting, along with the caption 'a bullet a day keeps the infidel away'.

Hebdo's Paris offices were attacked today by two gunmen wielding Kalashnikov rifles, leaving at least 12 dead, with Charbonnier believed to be among those killed.

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Stephane Charbonnier, editor of magazine Charlie Hebdo, was put on Al Qaeda's most wanted list last year for publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed

Mr Charbonnier was named as one of nine men the extreme Islamist group were targeting (pictured centre right). Their photographs were printed alongside the caption 'a bullet a day keeps the infidel away'

Discussions: An editorial meeting at the French Satirical Weekly Charlie Hebdo on February 9, 2006 in Paris

While it is not yet known who is responsible for the attacks, witnesses report hearing the men shouting 'the Prophet has been avenged' before fleeing towards the city's east.

They remain on the run and have been filmed shooting their way through Paris in a stolen car.

Charbonnier's lawyer revealed today that the editor has been under special police protection since 2012, and that the offices also had officers stationed there.

The controversy around Hebdo began in 2006 when the publication reprinted now-infamous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by Danish artist Kurt Westergaard.

When the images originally appeared they lead to days of protests across the Middle East and in Western cities. The decision to reprint the images landed the then-editor in court under anti-terror laws, though he was later acquitted.

Satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo first attracted controversy in 2006 after reprinting Danish cartoons showing the Prophet Mohammed which caused protests across the Middle East and in Western cities

Hebdo had its offices burned to the ground in 2011 (pictured) after publishing more images of Mohammed, though nobody was inside at the time

On other occasions Hebdo named Prophet Mohammed as its guest editor, published cartoons of the holy figure in the nude, and renamed itself Sharia Hebdo with the cover slogan '100 lashes if you don't die of laughter'.

Hebdo's old offices were burned to the ground in 2011 when attackers used Molotov cocktails to start a blaze early in the morning of November 2.

There was nobody in the building at the time, and the target was thought to be the magazine's computer system, which was completely destroyed.

At the time, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Stephane Charbonnier, said Islam could not be excluded from freedom of the press.

At least 12 people have died, including police officers and journalists, after two gunmen attacked the magazine's new offices in Paris today

He said: ‘If we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism, that is annoying.’

Mr Charbonnier, also known as Charb, said he did not see the attack on the magazine as the work of French Muslims, but of what he called ‘idiot extremists’

Riot police were forced to stand guard outside the building for days following the attack, as the editors took a defiant stance, choosing to reprint the cartoon images multiple times.

In 2012 Hebdo again printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed while violent protests were taking place across the Middle East after an anti-Islamic film made in California was put up online.

During the unrest the U.S. embassy was attacked in Benghazi killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service worker Sean Smith, two CIA contractors, and injuring another ten.

Around the same time Charlie Hebdo was targeted online by British extremist Anjem Choudary who wrote: 'Those who want to support the publication of "Charlie Hebdo" who insulted the Messenger Muhammad (saw) must take lessons from Theo Van Gogh!'

Gogh, a Dutch film director, was assassinated by jihadi Mohammed Bouyeri in November 2004 for his film Submission which criticized the treatment of women in Islam.

The following year the magazine's office again had to be surrounded by riot officers after they published a cartoon booklet depicting the Prophet naked as a baby and being pushed in a wheelchair by a Rabbi.

On the final page of the booklet there was a note from the editor, Stephane Charbonnier, saying the images were 'halal' because Muslims had worked on them, and that they were factually accurate as they had been derived from descriptions in the Koran.

The satirical publication, widely seen as France's answer to Private Eye, prides itself on a mixture of tongue-in-cheek reporting and investigative journalism.

Witnesses report the gunmen shouted 'the Prophet has been avenged' before fleeing. They have since been pictured shooting their way across Paris, where they remain on the run

In an interview with De Volkskrant in January 2013, Mr Charbonnier revealed he had been placed under constant police protection for four months after one of the cartoon issues was published.

He shrugged off criticism that he was only publishing the images to gain notoriety for Hebdo, and insisted that he was instead defending the right to free speech.