Al-Qaeda in Yemen threatens France with new attacks: SITE

[WASHINGTON] A top sharia official from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) threatened France with fresh attacks following those at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and at a Jewish supermarket, SITE monitoring group said Friday.

"It is better for you to stop your aggression against the Muslims, so perhaps you will live safely. If you refuse but to wage war, then wait for the glad tiding," Harith al-Nadhari was quoted saying in a video.

He stopped short of claiming responsibility for the three days of Islamist bloodshed in France that left 17 people dead.

But one of the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack studied in Yemen, where he attended Al-Qaeda training camps, Yemeni security sources and a classmate have said.

"Some of the sons of France were disrespectful to the prophets of Allah, so a group from among the believing soldiers of Allah marched unto them, then they taught them respect and the limit of the freedom of expression," the AQAP official says.

French elite forces stormed two hostage sites Friday, killing the brothers behind the Charlie Hebdo massacre and a jihadist accomplice in a fiery end that also claimed the lives of four hostages at the city center supermarket.

AFP