MOSCOW, January 10 (Sputnik) –French security services are likely to face intense pressure to explain how known jihadists managed to avoid surveillance and execute a daytime attack on a French satirical newspaper which had received threats in the past, reports The Washington Post.
According to French authorities, during his three years in detention, Cherif Kouachi became acquainted with another radical, Djamel Beghal, accused of planning an attack on the US Embassy in Paris. Cherif was released in 2008, reports Washington Post.
Around the same time US officials were looking to determine whether the older Kouachi met with Awlaki in 2011. Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam and Islamic militant. Awlaki was in charge of AQAP’s external operations and would have been highly interested in a recruit from Europe. Despite the possibility of the Kouachi meeting Awlaki, officials uncovered no evidence of such an encounter, reports Washington Post.
Awlaki was killed in a CIA drone strike shortly after Kouachi’s return to France, raising speculation that the cleric’s death may explain the brothers’ extended period of inactivity — that they possibly cut off communications with AQAP as part of a broader effort to maintain a lower profile.
“These guys were known to be bad, and the French had tabs on them for a while, at some point, though, they allocated resources differently. They moved on to other targets,” the official told New York Times.
