Paris attacks underline foreign jihadist threat

PARIS held a "unity rally" on Sunday which was attended by world leaders from more than 40 nations, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The rally is believed to have been the biggest in French history and follows last week's multiple terrorist atrocities, which killed 17 French citizens, the worst such attacks in Europe since the London bombings in 2005.

One of the disturbing discoveries from the atrocities is the apparent link between at least one of the Paris terrorists, Said Kouachi, and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). It is reported that Kouachi met the radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011, and may have received a period of terrorist training there and/or fought alongside AQAP.

Moreover, a pre-recorded video emerged on Sunday featuring another of the terrorists, Amedy Coulibaly, in which he pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). French officials are still searching for Coulibaly's wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, a potential accomplice to the attacks, who it is reported may have fled to Syria.