By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
An al-Qaeda video released on the Internet in which the group claims responsibility for last week’s attacks in France is authentic, the State Department said Wednesday.
In the video, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, said the deadly attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's Paris headquarters was carried out on the orders of top Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
U.S. intelligence verified the video’s authenticity but investigations are ongoing to confirm the group’s claim of responsibility, said State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.
“We're still looking at every piece of information to determine exactly the links here between the attackers and AQAP, particularly specific members of AQAP,” she said. “We're still trying to get complete fidelity on the exact links.”
Seventeen people were killed during the attacks on the magazine’s offices and a kosher supermarket in Paris.
The two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, were killed Jan. 9 in a warehouse in Dammartin-en-Goele, a small town north of Paris.
Amedy Coulibaly, the alleged culprit in the attack on the Kosher supermarket, was also killed Jan. 9 by police at the supermarket, a day after he allegedly shot and killed 27-year-old policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge, southern Paris.
Authorities contend that Coulibaly's wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, fled France Jan. 2 and crossed the Turkish border to Syria on Jan. 8 where ISIL has significant control.
She is wanted by French authorities for being an accomplice in the attacks.
Harf said that the U.S. is unaware of any operational collaboration between ISIL and AQAP.
