The White House on Wednesday confirmed the authenticity of a video from the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda claiming credit for last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris but said U.S. and French authorities are still trying to determine whether or not the group was behind the deadly assaults.
Presidential press secretary spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday said French authorities are leading the investigation and have given the video “careful scrutiny.”
He also noted that the “majority of the victims” of attacks by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are Muslims and said recent attacks by the organization, including one that targeted schoolchildren and another that targeted a hospital, are “an indication of the warped ideology of this organization.”
The U.S. and other members of the international community are working with the Yemeni government to mitigate AQAP’s threat, Earnest said, and as a result the group “continues to feel the pressure.”
In a video released Wednesday, a senior AQAP leader said his branch of the terrorist group ordered, planned and funded the attack in Paris with the guidance of al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri consistent with the recommendations of his late predecessor Osama bin Laden.
One of the Kouachi brothers who carried out the Paris attack reportedly met with AQAP leader Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011 and returned with $20,000, and witnesses to the attack said the brothers repeatedly claimed to be members of AQAP during the siege.
Al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen in September 2011.
In the video the group said it planned the attack on Charlie Hebdo’s office in retribution for the magazine’s repeated publication of cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
AQAP circulated the video on the same day that Charlie Hebdo distributed copies of a new edition that again depicted Muhammad.
