CAIRO // Al Qaeda's Yemen branch has claimed responsibility for last week's deadly attack on a Paris satirical newspaper, saying it was in revenge for Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The claim came in a video posted by Nasr Al Ansi, a top commander of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or Aqap, on the group’s Twitter account on Wednesday.
In the 11-minute video, Al Ansi says the assault on Charlie Hebdo – which killed 12 people including editors, cartoonists and journalists, as well as two police officers – was in “revenge for the Prophet”. Depictions of Prophet Mohammed are considered an insult in Islam.
He said Aqap “chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation” against the weekly publication, though he produced no evidence to support the claim.
The assault was the beginning of three days of terror in France that saw 17 people killed before the perpetrators, three extremist attackers who operated in the name of Islam, were gunned down by security forces.
Al Ansi hailed the two brothers who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attack, Said and Cherif Kouachi, as “heroes”.
“Congratulations to you, the Nation of Islam, for this revenge that has soothed our pain,” said Al Ansi. “Congratulations to you for these brave men who blew off the dust of disgrace and lit the torch of glory in the darkness of defeat and agony.”
Al Ansi accused France of belonging to the “party of Satan” and said it “shared all of America’s crimes” against Muslims – a reference to France’s military offensive in Mali.
He also warned of more “tragedies and terror” in the future.
Washington considers Aqap one of Al Qaeda’s most dangerous offshoots. Formed in 2009 as a merger of the terror group’s Yemeni and Saudi branches, Aqap has been blamed for a string of unsuccessful bomb plots against American targets.
These include a foiled plan to down a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009 using a new type of explosive hidden in the bomber’s underwear, and another attempt a year later to send mail bombs hidden in toner cartridges on planes bound to the US from the Gulf.
The Charlie Hebdo strike is the Aqap’s first successful strike outside its home territory – and a triumph for its trademark double-strategy of waging “jihad” in Yemen to build its strength to strike abroad.
One of the attackers, Said Kouachi, travelled to Yemen in 2011 and either received training from or fought alongside the group, authorities say.
A US intelligence assessment shows he was trained in preparation to return home and carry out an attack.
* Associated Press