Phone interview: Chérif Kouachi claims Paris terror plot financed by al-Qaeda

Chérif Kouachi, one of the two brothers who killed 12 in a massacre at French magazine Charlie Hebdo this week tells TV news channel BFM-TV he received financing by al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen

A French news network says it spoke directly with two of the gunmen who held hostages at separate locations in Paris on Friday. 

It said one of them claimed allegiance to al-Qaeda in Yemen, and the other to the Islamic Stategroup. 

BFM television quoted Chérif Kouachi, one of two brothers who killed 12 people in an attack on the Paris offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, as saying he was financed and dispatched by al-Qaeda in Yemen.

It said it spoke with him as he was cornered near Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport with his brother, Said Kourachi.

The two brothers were killed on Friday when French security forces raided a printing plant in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, where they had holed up with a lone hostage.

^{Police release footage of assault on print works} 

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AP could not independently confirm the authenticity of the audio recording.

French police union spokesperson Christophe Crepin said Cherif Kouachi's claim to links with al-Qaeda in Yemen was likely to be true, adding that he had connections with Algerian jihadis.

BFM also said it spoke with Amedy Coulibaly, who held hostages at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris on Friday.

The network reported that Coulibaly said the three gunmen were coordinating and that he was with the Islamic State group.

^{Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11337155/Phone-interview-Cherif-Kouachi-claims-terror-plot-financed-by-al-Qaeda.html}