Al Qaeda's Yemen branch has claimed responsibility for last week's terrorist attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo when two masked gunmen stormed the Paris office and killed 12 people, according to a video posted on YouTube.
The deadly massacre had been ordered by the Islamist militant group's leadership for insulting the Prophet Mohammad through publication of satirical images, Reuters reported. After last week's three-day terror spree in Paris, 17 people were left dead while all three terrorists were killed during police raids.
"As for the blessed Battle of Paris, we ... claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger of God," said Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, a top commander of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, in the recording released on Wednesday.
This is the first time that a group officially claimed responsibility for the attack, a week after Al Qaeda-linked terrorist brothers, Said and Chérif Kouachi, methodically executed 12 people in an attack on the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo and Amédy Coulibaly, a militant Islamist, opened fire inside a kosher supermarket, killing 4 people before dying in a gun battle with police authorities.
AQAP leadership "chose the target, laid the plan (and) financed the operation" for the "Blessed Battle of Paris," al-Ansi said. The strike was carried out in "implementation" of the order of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, The Wall Street Journal reported.
It was a "coincidence" that the Kouachis' friend, Coulibaly, shot a French police officer and held a Kosher market hostage following the attack, al-Ansi revealed.
If Western nations continue to allow depictions of Mohammed, "tragedies and terror" will continue to occur in the future, he warned.
Additionally, he also mocked Sunday's demonstrations for free speech in France, which belongs to the "party of Satan," New York Daily News reported.
"Look at how they gathered, rallied and supported each other; strengthening their weakness and dressing their wounds" that will not heal, al-Ansi said.
Currently, as many as six members of a terrorist cell are being searched by French officials for being "potential accomplices" in last week's massacre.
In addition, a massive international manhunt has also been underway to locate the wife of the terrorist behind a supermarket siege in Paris. Hayat Boumedienne has been identified as the common-law wife and suspected accomplice of Coulibaly.
However the 26-year-old suspect reportedly crossed into Syria on Jan. 8, French officials said.
Meanwhile, police are also searching for a person responsible for filming and posting a video of one of the attackers explaining how the massacre would unfold in Paris.
