A video of supposedly Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered a policewoman and killed four hostages in a Parisian kosher supermarket, has emerged online. He swears his allegiance to the Islamic State in the clip and attempts to justify the wave of terror attacks.
The man much resembling Coulibaly talks of being a “soldier
of the Caliphate” and states that he coordinated his plans
with the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, who perpetrated a
bloody massacre at the offices of French satirical magazine
Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.
The man asserted that ‘France is a legitimate target.’ He is
referred to as Aboü Bassir AbdAllah al-Ifriqip and wears military
body armor, displays an array of weapons and does push-ups.
He pledges his allegiance to “Caliph Ibrahim”, also
known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of the
Islamic State and speaks about the attack on the policewoman in
the past tense, suggesting the attack had already been completed.
Killing of policewoman in Paris linked to Charlie
Hebdo attack – reports
In the background of the video, radio news is already documenting
the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices.
All the jihadists belonged to the same terrorist cell, according
to French police. The man in the video discusses how they
coordinated with one another.
“If we did things a bit together and a bit separately it was to
have more impact,” he states.
He claimed the attacks were justified, because “if you attack the Caliphate and the Islamic State, you will be attacked.”
Several of the comments Amedy Coulibaly made had already been
aired on BFMTV shortly before a police operation on Friday, in
which he was shot and killed.
READ
MORE: Charlie Hebdo suspects admitted links to Al-Qaeda,
coordinated with Paris store hostage taker – French TV
BFMTV says it was able to record the conversation after Coulibaly
failed to hang up the phone following a brief interview. In his
statements, Coulibaly called his actions revenge for the French
military presence in Mali, Western intervention in Syria,
airstrikes against the Islamic State, and the French law banning
women from wearing the hijab in public.
“Each time, they try to make you believe that the Muslims are
terrorists. But I was born in France. If they hadn't attacked
elsewhere, I would not be here,” Coulibaly allegedly told
the hostages at the kosher market on Friday.
The editing work on the new video appears to have been completed
after Coulibaly’s death. Le Monde said the Paris prosecutors’
office had demanded the video’s withdrawal, and it has now been
taken down from YouTube.
On Sunday, the shooting of a jogger in a Paris suburb, which took
place on the same day as the Charlie Hebdo massacre, was also
linked to Coulibaly. The jogger was seriously wounded.
A prosecutor said that ballistics tests conducted on the shell
casing from the shooting in Fontenay aux Roses revealed links to
the gun used at the kosher supermarket, reported AP.
Millions are taking part in “cry for freedom” rallies
across France on Sunday, to honor the victims of the Charlie
Hebdo massacre. This comes after three days of standoffs and
hostage situations, with one terror suspect still on the run.
The latest reports, however, indicate the female suspect might
have been in Syria at the time of the attacks, which took 17
lives, journalists and policemen among them.