Al-Qaeda in Yemen Claims Charlie Hebdo Attack


Al-Qaeda in Yemen Claims Charlie Hebdo Attack

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A top leader of Yemen's al-Qaeda branch has claimed responsibility for last week's attack on Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo when two masked gunmen killed 12 people, including much of the weekly's editorial staff and two police officers.

Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the branch is known, appeared in an 11-minute video posted online on Wednesday, saying that the massacre at Charlie Hebdo was in "vengeance for the prophet".

Al-Ansi said that France belongs to the "party of Satan" and warned of more "tragedies and terror". He said that Yemen's al-Qaeda branch "chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation".

The paper had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which is considered an insult to Islam.

On Saturday, another senior AQAP member Harith al-Nadhari also claimed responsibility for the attack in an audio recording, saying the shooting was an operation to teach the French the limits of freedom of expression, Al Jazeera reported.

Most Visited in Other Media
Top Other Media stories
Top Stories