Paris attacks: worldwide inquiry into jihadi networks under way | World news | The GuardianParis attacks: worldwide inquiry into jihadi networks under way | World news | The Guardian










Close






Skip to main content

 









sign in








subscribe









search




jobs






more


from the guardian:


jobs


change edition:



switch to the UK edition


switch to the AU edition







US edition




switch to the UK edition




switch to the Australia edition













The Guardian


Winner of the Pulitzer prize











home


›
world


›
europe




americas


asia


middle east


africa


australia


UK










home




US




world
selected




opinion




sports




soccer




tech




arts




lifestyle




fashion




business




money




travel




environment







browse all sections
close







 











Charlie Hebdo attack



Paris attacks: worldwide inquiry into jihadi networks under way









Priority is uncovering further attacks, as it emerges surveillance on Chérif and Saïd Kouachi was lifted months ago


•
Huge crowds gather for Paris anti-terror rally – live updates














Saïd (left) and Chérif Kouachi, who killed 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices, told witnesses they were acting on behalf of al-Qaida in Yemen. Photograph: Handout/Getty Images




Julian Borger


Sunday 11 January 2015 10.01 EST







Share on Facebook







Share on Twitter







Share via Email







Share on LinkedIn







Share on Google+







Share on WhatsApp
















A worldwide investigation is under way aimed at uncovering potential jihadi networks connected to the Paris killers, with an urgent priority on discovering whether any further attacks are planned.
It emerged on Sunday that police surveillance on the Kouachi brothers had been lifted months before the Paris attacks, on the grounds they were not thought to pose a threat despite their jihadi links and travel to the Middle East. European police and intelligence services are combing through their dossiers to see if links to other “sleeper cells” may have been missed.
Meanwhile, the emergence of a video showing the Paris supermarket gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, aligning himself with the Islamic State extremist group demonstrated the complex nature of the threat. It is not yet clear whether Isis had any organisational role in the attack or was simply claimed by Coulibaly as an inspiration. Either way, it showed the Islamic extremist group extending its reach from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq into the west.








    Sorry, your browser is unable to play this video. 



 Facebook 
 Twitter 
 Pinterest 
  expand 


Paris supermarket attacker Amédy Coulibaly claims link to Isis - video


In statements, Isis has threatened that the Paris attacks were merely the start of a campaign against the west, and the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag quoted US intelligence sources as warning of a wave of attacks across Europe.
Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, who killed 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices last Wednesday, told witnesses they were acting on behalf of al-Qaida in Yemen, otherwise known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Yemeni, French and US reports say that Saïd, the elder of the two, made several visits to Yemen between 2009 and 2012, when he is thought to have received firearms training. Chérif Kouachi also claimed in a telephone interview with French television channel BFMTV to have trained in Yemen, but that has not been confirmed. Nor have reports that the brothers travelled to Syria.
In recent years, AQAP has emerged as the most potent al-Qaida affiliate in terms of its ability to carry out operations against western targets. That is attributed in part to the enduring popularity of its American-born figurehead, Anwar al-Awlaki, whose videos calling for jihad against the west have remained in circulation years after his death in a US drone strike in September 2011.
According to Yemeni reports, Saïd Kouachi shared a room at some point with Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, a Nigerian AQAP member arrested in Detroit in December 2009 after his abortive attempt to blow up a civilian airliner with explosives hidden in his underwear. AbdulMutallab, aged 23 at the time, had previously studied engineering in London.
Despite such links, phone surveillance by the French domestic security service DGSI was lifted from Chérif Kouachi at the end of 2013, and from Saïd in summer 2014, according to Libération newspaper. “Wiretap warrants were not renewed because there were other priorities and Chérif, at that time, seemed to be moving in the direction of peddling fake goods. He wasn’t really in touch with the most dangerous people in radical Islamic circles,” a French government source told Libération.
It is not clear why surveillance on Saïd was lifted. L’Express reported simply that the police focus shifted to other suspects.
The investigation is also delving into the past connections of Chérif Kouachi, and in particular the Buttes Chaumont jihadi network, named after a Paris park where volunteer Islamist fighters trained prior to going to fight in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion. Chérif was jailed for 18 months in 2008 for his membership of the network, although there is no evidence he travelled to Iraq himself. On Sunday, it was reported that the ideologue of the group, Farid Benyettou, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2008, has been working since December as a trainee nurse in the emergency services at a Paris hospital. According to Le Parisien, Benyettou had not been at work on Wednesday or Thursday, but was on duty over the weekend.
While in pretrial detention for his part in the Buttes Chaumont network, Chérif Kouachi met Djemal Beghal, a French-Algerian al-Qaida recruiter imprisoned for an attempted attack on the US embassy in Paris in 2001. Coulibaly was also an admirer of Beghal, who had preached in London’s Finsbury Park mosque, and may have first tried to establish contact through Kouachi.
In 2010 both Chérif Kouachi and Coulibaly were arrested on suspicion of plotting to free an Algerian in French jail for a 1995 bomb attack on the Paris metro. Coulibaly was jailed but Kouachi was freed for lack of evidence.
Meanwhile, a solid bond developed between Coulibaly’s partner, Hayat Boumeddiene and Chérif Kouachi’s wife. According to French authorities, the two women spoke more than 500 times by phone over the course of 2014. Boumeddiene is reported to have left France for Turkey on 2 January, before the Paris attacks and crossed into Syria six days later.



Topics



Charlie Hebdo attack




Paris




France




Europe




Al-Qaida



More…



Islamic State (Isis)




Syria




Middle East and North Africa




Iraq








Share on Facebook







Share on Twitter







Share via Email







Share on LinkedIn







Share on Google+







Share on WhatsApp



















 






more on this story














Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video

File footage of one of the Paris gunmen, Cherif Kouachi, arriving at court in 2008 on charges of helping to funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency



Published: 13 Jan 2015




Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video












Analysis Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris

The radicalisation of the Kouachi brothers began in a picturesque park in the capital while Amédy Coulibaly took the first steps towards terrorism in prison, but what the three had in common was growing up on the margins of French society



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris












Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras

Officials try to pinpoint when and where cameras found in possession of Kouachi brothers and Amédy Coulibaly were obtained



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras












Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices

Mobilisation of 10,000 troops to guard potentially vulnerable locations comes as prime minister warns that ‘threat still present’



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices














Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly




Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly








Analysis Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based








Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis








Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends

Olivier Tonneau




Published: 13 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends
















popular












 








The Guardian






back to top














home




US




world
selected




opinion




sports




soccer




tech




arts




lifestyle




fashion




business




money




travel




environment







all sections
close







home




US




world
selected




UK




europe




americas




asia




middle east




africa




australia






opinion




sports




soccer




MLS




NFL




MLB




NBA




NHL






soccer




live scores




tables




competitions




results




fixtures




clubs






tech




games






arts




movies




tv & radio




music




books




art & design




stage




classical






lifestyle




food




health




love & sex




family




women




home & garden






fashion




business




markets




companies






money




travel




USA




europe




UK






environment




development




cities






science




media




crosswords




video











World




›
Charlie Hebdo attack








jobs

subscribe
all topics
all contributors

info and resources

contact us

feedback

complaints & corrections
terms & conditions
privacy policy
cookie policy
securedrop


© 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.






















 
