Al Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for last week’s deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. The group also criticized the unity rally held in Paris over the weekend.
The group posted a video to YouTube, claiming that it was ordered by the group’s leadership to respond to the satirical newspaper’s constant depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. It’s the first time the group commented on the attacks, which were carried out by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who did visit Yemen in 2011, notes Reuters.
“As for the blessed Battle of Paris, we ... claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger of God,” Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen (AQAP), said in the video. He added that leadership had picked the target, but did not specify which leader.
Ansi did credit AQAP propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2011. It’s still not clear if he had a direct link to the Kouachi brothers.
CNN notes that Ansi linked France with the U.S., noting that the two countries have close ties.
“It is France that has shared all of America's crimes," he said. "It is France that has committed crimes in Mali and the Islamic Maghreb [North Africa]. It is France that supports the annihilation of Muslims in Central Africa in the name of race cleansing."
The Kouachi brothers killed 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices. They were killed by police on Friday after they took a person hostage. Amedy Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene, who had links to the brothers, took hostages at a kosher supermarket, killing four. Coulibaly was killed by police, but Boumeddiene remains at large.
As for Charlie Hebdo, the magazine has published 3 million copies of its new issue and all copies have already sold out. They featured the Prophet Muhammad on the cover. Millions of people also turned out in Paris on Sunday for a Unity Rally.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com