Yemeni faction of Al Qaeda owns up Charlie Hebdo attack

January 10, 2015 03:12

A member of Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen said the group directed the massacre at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris "as revenge for the honour" of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The announcement came hours after near simultaneous raids by French police on Friday killed the two Islamist brothers behind the attack and an ally of theirs.

The raids, conducted at locations 25 miles apart, took out Cherif and Said Kouachi and a suspect in a policewoman's killing who had seized hostages at a Paris grocery on the brothers' behalf, but also left at least four hostages dead, according to authorities and reports from the scene.

The Al Qaeda member on Friday provided to The Associated Press a statement in English saying "the leadership of AQAP directed the operations and they have chosen their target carefully."

There was no independent confirmation of the report.

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