Al-Qaeda in Yemen claims responsibility for Charlie Hebdo attack

AlQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, claimed responsibility Wednesday for last week’s attack in Paris on the offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in which 12 people died.

In a video posted on jihadist web forums, a military leader of AQAP, Nasser bin Ali AlAnesi, described the assault as a “turning point in the history of the struggle against the enemies of God.”

AlAnesi said “the blessed invasion of Paris” was planned and financed by the leadership of the organization in “revenge” for offenses against the Prophet Mohammed.

“We, AlQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claim responsibility for this perpetrated as revenge for the messenger of Allah,” AlAnesi said.

He claimed that Yemen’s alQaeda branch “chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation” which was ordered by overall al Qaeda leader Ayman alZawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden after he was killed by U.S. special forces in 2011.

In the almost 12minute video, AlAnesi decribed the Kouachi brothers who launched the attack and died later in a shootout with police, as “two heroes of Islam.”

Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday published a special edition featuring on the cover a caricature of Prophet Mohammed holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie), the slogan of solidarity adopted after the attack.

Also last week, a third Muslim gunman shot a policewoman in a Paris suburb, then killed four hostages in a Jewish supermarket before being killed by police.

French authorities have mobilized 10,000 soldiers to reinforce security across the country following the terrorist attacks.