Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the French Charlie Hebdo magazine, saying the shooting was an operation to teach the French the limits of freedom of expression.
Abu Hareth al-Nezari, an senior member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), made the claim in an audio recording published online late on Friday.
“Some French were not polite with the prophets and that was the reason why a few of the believers, who loved Allah and his prophet and loved martyrdom, went to them to teach them how to behave and how to be polite with the prophets and to teach them that the freedom of expression has limits and boundaries,” al-Nezari said in the recording.
Wednesday’s attack on the magazine’s office, that left 12 people dead, and ensuing hostage seizes have shocked France and triggered a massive seucity operation. In addition to those killed at Charlie Hebdo, three civilians and two police officers have been killed.
One of the attackers, Said Kouachi, claimed to have been trained and financed by al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Yemeni intelligence officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that he had indeed been in Yemen in 2011, fighting with al-Qaeda, and had been deported.
If confirmed, the attack would be the first time al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen has successfully carried out an operation in the West after at least two earlier attempts.
Said, 32 and his 34-year-old brother Cherif Kouachi were killed northeast of Paris on Friday, while a gunman who took several hostages at a supermarket in the east of the capital was also shot dead in a standoff with police.
At least four hostages held at the kosher grocery store in Porte De Vincennes also died on Friday as police stormed the site.
French police are still hunting for Hayat Boumeddiene, suspected of involvement in the kosher store siege and the shooting of a policewoman.
Police said Boumeddiene was the wife of Amedy Coulibaly, who laid siege to the supermarket.
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