Yemen's Top Al Qaeda Leader Claims Responsibility for Charlie Hebdo Attack

Story by the Associated Press; curated by Oliver Darcy.

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CAIRO (AP) — A top leader of Yemen's al-Qaida branch has claimed responsibility for last week's attack on a Paris newspaper when two masked gunmen killed 12 people, including much of the weekly's editorial staff and two police officers.

MORE: Al Qaeda in Yemen says assailants “were assigned” to attack satirical French newspaper: video message - @Reuters

— TheBlazeNOW (@TheBlazeNOW) January 14, 2015

Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the branch is known, appeared in an 11-minute Internet video posted Wednesday, saying that the massacre at Charlie Hebdo was in "vengeance for the prophet." The paper had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which is considered an insult in Islam.

Al Qaeda in Yemen leader says radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki assisted in carrying out Paris attacks before his death pic.twitter.com/KDPpVA75SF

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) January 14, 2015

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

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