Cherif Kouachi, one of the two Charlie Hebdo gunmen, claimed Wednesday's attack was funded by al-Qaeda of Yemen, reported Reuters. Kouachi and his older brother killed 12 people in the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine.
Three days after the attack, French security forces surrounded and killed the brothers who were holding a hostage at a printing works northeast of Paris. Prior to his death, Kouachi told BFM-TV he received funding from Anwar al Awlaki, a well known al-Qaeda international recruiter and preacher who was killed in a 2011 drone strike.
"I was sent, me, Cherif Kouachi, by Al Qaeda of Yemen. I went over there and it was Anwar al-Awlaki who financed me," he said by telephone.
Said Kouachi, the other attacker, allegedly met with al-Awlaki in Yemen as well, according to a Yemen security official.
Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula has since praised the attack. A member called the attack "revenge for the honor" of the Prophet.
The kosher supermarket hostage taker, Amedy Coulibaly, asserted he and the Kouachi brothers coordinated the attacks. Coulibaly was a member of Daesh, and all three attackers were members of the same Paris Islamist group.
