It has been confirmed that one of the two brothers suspected of gunning down 12 people in an attack on a Paris-based satirical magazine traveled to Yemen in 2011 and had direct contact with an Al Qaeda training camp, according to U.S. government sources.
Investigators say they have made it a priority to determine whether he had contact with Al Qaeda in Yemen’s leadership, including a bomb maker and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee.
Both Said Kouachi, 34, who is known to have gone to Yemen, and his brother, Cherif Kouachi, who served time in France on a terrorism conviction, were on a U.S. no-fly list, sources confirmed. The new information shows both suspects, who were still being hunted Thursday night, had ties to Al Qaeda affiliates, one in Yemen and the other in Iraq.
“AQAP (Al Qaeda’s Arabian Peninsula affiliate) has been the real force within Al Qaeda that’s always been focused on external operations against the West and the United States – the most committed to doing this,” Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News. McCaul has been getting regular briefings about the Paris attack.
“This would be one of the more real successes that they’ve have had if it turns out to be true.”
While there has been no credible claim of responsibility for the attack, Fox News was told that the evidence increasingly points to the likely involvement of a foreign terrorist organization — either inspiring or directing the attack. Less than an hour after the attack, a series of tweets accompanied by images of three Al Qaeda members – Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, and two American members of AQAP who were both killed in U.S. drone strikes, Samir Khan and Anwar al-Awlaki – went out, raising more suspicions the attack was a possible Al Qaeda plot.
The Twitter account is well known in counter-terrorism circles and linked to AQAP.
Even as French authorities focused an intense manhunt on a vast forest north of Paris, other details about the Kouachis were trickling out, painting a picture of alienated brothers, sons of Algerian immigrants who later died. Experts who viewed cellphone video of their escape from Wednesday’s rampage said it was apparent they’d had training, citing such examples as the way the laid down cover fire for each other and their commando-style flight in a getaway car.
“He drinks, smokes, he doesn’t have a beard. What interests him is football. He is an ideal target for Islamic preachers.”
— They were born in Paris’ 10th Arrondissement (district) to parents of Algerian origin, but reportedly grew up in a secular home.
— They are believed to have lost their parents, and grew up as orphans, with Cherif bouncing around foster homes in the city of Rennes, in the Brittany region of western France.
— Cherif trained to be a fitness instructor, and eventually both brothers returned to Paris as adults.
Some more hostages including children were taken today in Paris by gunmen. The hostages situation is going on presently. The gunmen refuse to surrender and say they want to die as martyrs or heroes. Frightening situation.
Also the policeman killed on the same day the twelve journalist were killed, is a beautiful black woman. Of course there was hardly any media coverage on her internationally or locally.
The alleged ” suspects” of the twelve killings grew up poor and orphaned and spent their teenage part of life in the terrible French ghettoes that face poverty and severe discrimination.
Growing up bitter and feeling unloved are easy targets for those who join militia groups and train to Kill
This situation is frightening. I can’t imagine being in a place like that and feeling the fear and anxiety. This is why when i wrote about Spice being in Paris,during the incident I don’t believe she gave the details for a ‘buss.’ To be in situations like that don’t pray for it. U really really feel fear.
DI WHOLE A DI EVIL DEM DEAD NOW….PITY SOME A DI HOSTAGE DIED TOO …WATCHING CNN
I don’t condone or accept violence but when you have a set a people who feel they can discriminate, disrespect and nuttin fi happen. Condolences to all the families who lost a loved one in this crazy shit. Dem never learn them lesson in 2011 when there was massive backlash of a depiction of the prophet Mohammed, and when they drew the French Attorney General, who is a black woman, as a monkey (f**kin outaorder).They claim that it is never there goal to provoke anger. So mi fi bloodclaut like how you depict my race. Tek people fi rass fool. Dem tink say man skin thick but when backlash tek dem, dem a run for help, poor dem. People unnu see dat race war not just happening in America.