Members of al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen say the group directed the attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a member of Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch said the group directed the attack against Frnch magazine Charlie Hebdo to avenge blasphemies against the Prophet Mohammed.

The member has provided a statement to The Associated Press in English saying “the leadership of AQAP directed the operations and they have chosen their target carefully”.

The attack was in line with warnings from the late al-Qaeda leaderOsama bin Laden to the West about “the consequences of the persistence in the blasphemy against Muslim sanctities”.

More to come

AP