Paris Charlie Hebdo Attacker on Al-Qaeda Payroll

MOSCOW, January 15 (Sputnik) — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) provided $20,000 to one of the perpetrators of the deadly shooting at the Charlie Hebdo editorial offices in Paris, ABC News reports.

Cherif Kouachi, who carried out the attack along with his brother, travelled to Yemen in 2011 and might’ve met with Anwar al-Awlaki, two counter-terrorism officials told the news agency. The officials have also pointed out that while AQAP has already claimed responsibility for the attack, so far no evidence of communication between the terrorist organization and the Kouachi brothers in recent months has been uncovered.

According to CNN, AQAP claimed that the attack had been prepared over the course of several years, and that Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior cleric and the group’s former spokesman, who was killed by a US drone strike in 2011, had personally masterminded it. "When the heroes were assigned, they accepted. They promised and fulfilled," AQAP commander Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi said in a video address, with pictures of the Kouachi brothers in the background. Shortly before being killed by the police, Cherif Kouachi also told CNN affiliate BFMTV that he had received training from AQAP in Yemen.

CNN also points out that while AQAP didn’t claim responsibility for the siege that occurred in a kosher grocery store in Paris that occurred following the Charlie Hebdo attack.

CBS News points out, however, that Ahmedy Coulibaly, an ISIS follower responsible for the kosher supermarket hostage crisis, claimed that he was operating in concert with the Kouachi brothers. "Some of this was done together and some of it alone, in order to have a greater impact," he said on tape prior to the attack, according to the news agency.