Qaeda in Yemen claims attack on France’s Charlie Hebdo as Chalie Hebdo cover featuring Mohammed hits news stand

Al-Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack on Charlie Hebdo in a video posted online, saying it was “vengeance” for the French weekly’s cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

“We, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the messenger of Allah,” one of the group’s leaders, Nasser al-Ansi, said in the video.

The Scorpion machine gun and the Tokarev handgun used by Amedy Coulibaly during his attack on the kosher supermarket which resulted in the deaths of four Jewish Parisians came from Brussels and Charleroi.

The Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers used by the Kouachi brothers to attack the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine, killing 12, were purchased by Coulibaly near the Gare du Midi in Brussels for less than €5,000 (£3,870).
The area around the Brussels south train station, the Belgian terminus for the Eurostar, is where one Europe's largest markets is held on Sunday and the shabby streets are well known as a marketplace in illegal arms.
Police and public prosecutors have not confirmed the Belgian link but an arms dealer, well known to the authorities, has been arrested in Charleroi, in the French speaking south of Belgium.
The unnamed man contacted police after he became frightened because he had swindled Coulibaly and was now terrified because of Frenchman's links to Islamist terror groups, according to media reports.
13.37 New measures to allow the security services to access phone and internet records are essential to save lives, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has said.
Theresa May told the Commons that communications data was likely to have been used by French police in the Paris attacks to trace and link the terrorists, but British authorities are losing the ability to investigate suspects.
Mrs May said: "It is too soon to say for certain, but it is highly probable that communications data was used in the Paris attacks to locate the suspects and establish the links between the two attacks. Quite simply, if we want the police and the security esrvices to protect the public and save lives, they need this capability."

Charlie Hebdo: new cover featuring Prophet Mohammed launched

The magazine's latest 'Je suis Charlie' edition is published across the world a week after the attacks in Paris which killed 17 including nine Charlie Hebdo journalists

According to National News, a copy of the magazine has apparently just sold on Ebay for almost £100,000.
Today's edition of the magazine closed on the online auction site for £95,500 with 98 bids. The seller, Icg1981, has had a profile since 2003 and has 240 reviews and 100 per cent positive feedback.
However it is unclear if the Ebay lot, which closed at 15.21 today, is real and the seller was not available for comment.
15.35 BREAKING The French president, François Hollande, said the aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, can take part in military operations against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Iraq
15.32 Turkey's deputy prime minister, Yalcin Akdogan, condemned the cartoon in "the same way" as he condemned the Paris attacks.
On Twitter, Mr Akdogan said: "We condemn provocations, attacks and defamation against the Muslims and Islamic symbols the same way as we denounced the Paris attacks," he wrote in a message on Twitter.
"Those who disregard Muslims' sacred (values) by publishing images attributed to Holy Prophet are in open provocation," he said.
15.15 Earlier we reported on the coffee shop owner receiving a death threat for a "Je Suis Charlie" sign.
Adel Defilaux, a French-born Muslim, owns The Antishop in Brick Lane, East London, and told London Evening Standard of an intruder demanding he take down the sandwich board sign.
Police are now investigating and officers examined CCTV film from a camera outside the shop to see if it contains an image of the man.
15.08 Mufti Hussein also condemned "attacks against innocent people, and terrorism in all its forms. "Islam renounces the practice of violence against innocents, whether they are Muslim or anything else," he said.
14.53 More reactions coming in to the cartoon.
Mohammed Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said the cartoons were an insult to all Muslims across the world.
"This insult has hurt the feelings of nearly two billion Muslims all over the world. The cartoons and other slander damage relations between the followers of the (Abrahamic) faiths," he said in a statement.
4.29 According to Hurriyet Daily News, a Turkish court has decided to block websites publishing Charlie Hebdo cover. She said: "Every day that passess without the proposals in the Communications data Bill, the capabilities of the people who keep us safe diminishes. And as those capabilities diminish, more people find themselves in danger and yes, crimes will go unpunished and innocent lives put at risk.
Read Matthew's full story here.
13.27 The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, says Syria had warned of "such incidents" - attacks in Western Europe - if the governments of those countries continued to support the rebels.
"We need to remind many in the West that we have warned of such incidents since the beginning of the crisis in Syria," Assad told Czech newspaper Literarni Noviny in an interview to be published on Thursday. His comments were published by the Syrian Arab News Agency.
"We kept saying you must not support terrorists or give them political cover, or else this will impact your countries and your peoples," he said.
The Syrian president said Western leaders who called for his removal were "short-sighted and narrow-minded".
"What happened in France has proven that everything we said was right," he added.
13.07 Offices of the Pas-de-Calais regional government in the town of Arras were evacuated earlier today after a suspect package was discovered, writes Harriet Alexander.
Just before 11am local time (10am in the UK) the offices of the Prefecture were evacuated, and a small suitcase on the ground floor inspected.
Police carried out a controlled explosion at 11.31am - but it is not yet known whether the package was indeed suspicious.
12.37 Here's a short video which shows just how long the queues were in Paris...
12.16 It was widely assumed Charlie Hebdo's latest edition would sell out but sales were so fast, another run of 2m has been ordered. Across Paris, people queued to get their hands on a copy and some even found their way on eBay sought by those keen to get a copy.

AFP reports the state-run news agency, Anatolia Agency, said: "It has been decided that access to relevant sections of Internet sites that air Charlie Hebdo's cover today will be banned."
14.01 Most of the weapons used in Paris terrorist attacks that killed 17 people last week, including the shootings at Charlie Hebdo, were bought from criminal gangs and arms dealers in Belgium by Amedy Coulibaly, according to police sources. Bruno Waterfield reports from Brussels:
12.13 The London Evening Standard reports on a coffee shop owner who has received death threats for a "Je Suis Charlie" sign outside his cafe.
Adel Defilaux, a French-born Muslim, owns The Antishop in Brick Lane, East London, and told the newspaper of an intruder demanding he take down the sandwich board sign.
“He came in very aggressively and he told me to remove the sign. I asked him why and he said his community was offended by it and said if I didn’t remove it something bad was going to happen," Mr Defliaux said.
“I told him I was Muslim myself and I wanted to talk gently with him and I said people can’t kill journalists for expressing themselves.
“I calmly explained to him that what he was saying was not the reality of Islam. I thought I could calm him down, but it had the opposite effect. He went crazy."
For the full story, visit the website here.
11.51 The French justice ministry says more than 50 cases have been opened for 'condoning terrorism' since Paris attacks
11.43 A prominent Saudi cleric, Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamedi, told AFP that publication of the latest image was a mistake.
"It's not a good way to make the people understand us. Jesus or Moses, all messengers (of God) we should respect," and should not be made fun of in pictures or words, Mr Ghamedi said. "I believe it will make more problems."
11.37 Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, calls for respect in the aftermath of the Prophet Mohammed Charlie Hebdo front cover. Earlier, a spokesman for the foreign ministry condemned the cover as "provocative".
"We believe that sanctities need to be respected and unless we learn to respect one another it will be very difficult in a world of different views and different cultures and civilisations," Mr Zarif said.
11.15 According to Today's Zaman in Turkey, three of the country's satirical magazines intend to publish their magazines with 'Je Suis Charlie' written in white on a black background within a speech bubble.
The source for the story comes from an account, believed to be Uykusuz's official Twitter account, saying: "All together 'Je Suis Charlie

10.54 Huge queues form in France as the first edition of Charlie Hebdo published since the deadly attacks in Paris sells out within minutes.

10.40 A major counter-terrorism programme intended to stop young Muslims from being radicalised by jihadists is “clearly not working,” the former head of MI5 has warned, writes Matthew Holehouse.
Baroness Manningham Buller, who was the director general of the Security Service at the time of the 7/7 bombings, said the decision of 600 Britons to fight in Syria and Iraq with Isil was evidence that the Prevent scheme had failed.