The claim came
in a video posting by Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of Al-Qaida in the
Arabian Peninsula, which appeared on the group's Twitter account.
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."
He
said AQAP, as the branch is known, "chose the target, laid out the plan
and financed the operation" against the weekly, though he produced no
evidence to support the claim.
Orders
he said, came from al-Qaida's top leader Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin
Laden's successor. The attack on Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris was
the beginning of three days of terror in France that saw 17 people
killed before the three Islamic extremist attackers were gunned down by
security forces.
Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi who carried out the attack on the paper were "heroes," al-Ansi said.
"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 have
blown off the dust of disgrace and lit the torch of glory in the
darkness of defeat and agony."
In
the video, al-Ansi made no claim to the subsequent Paris attack on a
kosher grocery store, during which a friend of Kouachis, Amedy
Coulibaly, killed a French policewoman Thursday and four hostages on
Friday.
Coulibaly appeared in a video message two days after his
death, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, a fierce rival to
al-Qaida, saying he had worked in coordination with the Kouachis, the
"brothers from our team."The Coulibaly video raised questions over possible cooperation between the rival groups, competing for resources, recruits and leadership of Jihad. But al-Ansi called the rival groups' attacks a "coincidence."
In Wednesday's video, al-Ansi also accused France of belonging to the "party of Satan," saying the European country "shared all of America's crimes," a reference to France's offensive against militants in the west African nation of Mali.
Al-Ansi also warned of more "tragedies and terror" in the future.
Washington considers AQAP as one of al-Qaida's most dangerous offshoots. Formed in 2009 as a merger between 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 U.S. from the Gulf.
The Charlie Hebdo strike is the Yemen-based branch'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.
At least
one of the two brothers involved in the attack on the Paris weekly
traveled to Yemen in 2011 and either received training from or fought
alongside the group, authorities say. A U.S. intelligence assessment
described to The Associated Press shows that 34-year-old Said Kouachi
was trained in preparation to return home and carry out an attack.
Al-Ansi
also referenced AQAP's radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki,
who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, saying
he arranged the Paris attack. The remark appeared to indicate the
attack on the weekly was years in the making, and pointed to a possible
connection between the Kouachi brothers and al-Awlaki.
Al-Qaida
has in the past threatened Charlie Hebdo and cartoonists who depicted
Islam's prophet. Editor Stephane Charbonnier, one of those killed last
Wednesday, was on a hit list published in a 2013 edition of Inspire, the
English-language publication issued by AQAP.
Al-Ansi's video is the first direct claim of responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack.
However,
a member of AQAP sent a message to the AP last Friday, saying the group
had orchestrated the attack. The member spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized by the group to speak to media.
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