The Yemenite branch of the terror network al-Qaeda on Wednesday claimed responsibility for last week's Charlie Hebdo massacre, with one of its top commanders saying the assault was in revenge for the weekly's publications of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, considered an insult to some Muslims.
The claim came in a video posting by Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which appeared on the group's Twitter account. The video was the group's official claim of the assault on the Charlie Hebdo offices. In the 11-minute video, al-Ansi says the Charlie Hebdo attack was in "revenge for the Prophet." AQAP "chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation" against the weekly, he said, but did produce any 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 the weekly 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 in which four Jews were killed by another terrorist who was shot dead by police.
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.
The United States 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. The Charlie Hebdo strike is the Yemen-based branch's first successful strike outside its home territory.
