Al Qaeda claims French attack, derides Paris rally

Friday, 16 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Al Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, saying it was ordered by the Islamist militant group’s leadership for insults to the Prophet Mohammad, according to a video posted on YouTube.

Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, a leader of the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda (AQAP), is displayed on televisions at an electronics shop in Sanaa January 14, 2015 as he delivers a message which purports to show Al Qaeda in Yemen claiming responsibility for the attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo – REUTERS Gunmen killed 17 people in three days of violence that began when they shot staff in Charlie Hebdo’s offices last week in revenge for the publication of satirical images of the Prophet. One Western source said no hard evidence of a direct operational link to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had yet been found. But it was the first time that a group had officially claimed responsibility for the attack, which was led by Cherif and Said Kouachi, two French-born brothers of Algerian extraction who had visited Yemen in 2011. In Washington, a State Department Spokeswoman said the United States believed the video was authentic but officials were still determining if the claim of responsibility is true. “As for the blessed Battle of Paris, we...claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger of God,” Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, an AQAP ideologue, said in the recording. Ansi said the ‘one who chose the target, laid the plan and financed the operation is the leadership of the organisation’, without naming an individual. Zawahri’s orders He added that the strike had been carried out in ‘implementation’ of the order of overall al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who has urged Muslims to attack the West using any means they can find.

Ohio man arrested for planning attack on US Capitol

Reuters: An Ohio man claiming sympathy with Islamic State militants was arrested and charged on Wednesday in connection with a plot to attack the US Capitol with guns and bombs, court documents disclosed. Christopher Cornell, 20, of Cincinnati researched the construction of pipe bombs, purchased a semi-automatic rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition and made plans to travel to Washington to carry out the plot, according to an FBI informant’s legal testimony. Court documents showed that Cornell indicated on Twitter that he supported the Islamic State group under the alias Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah. According to the documents, in instant messages to the undercover FBI informant, Cornell indicated that while he did not have support to conduct an attack on behalf of any group, “we already got a thumbs up from the Brothers over there and Anwar al Awlaki before his martyrdom and many others.” Awlaki was killed by the United States in Yemen in 2011. In a November meeting with the informant, Cornell said he considered members of Congress to be his enemies, and he outlined a plan to place pipe bombs at and near the US Capitol and use firearms to kill employees and officials inside, according to the documents. The suspect’s father, John Cornell, told CNN he thought his son ‘was coerced into a lot of this’. “There is no way he could have carried out any kind of terrorist plot,” John Cornell said.