Video of gunman raises questions on affiliations

PARIS – Two days after his death, a video emerged Sunday of one of the Paris gunmen pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, while his two fellow militants have claimed to be from al-Qaida – a fiercely rival extremist organization.

That seeming contradiction has raised questions about the connections among the three French attackers, whether they acted with the direct involvement or knowledge of the networks, and whether their friendship allowed them to put aside the rift between the groups.

The Islamic State group does not cooperate with al-Qaida’s militants and actually fights them for territory in a side conflict of Syria’s civil war.

In video verified by the SITE Intelligence Group, Amedy Coulibaly said he had worked in coordination with Said and Cherif Kouachi, the “brothers from our team,” who carried out the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.

“We did things a bit together and a bit apart, so that it’d have more impact,” he said in fluent French, adding that he had helped the brothers financially with “a few thousand euros” for the operation. The video also showed him doing pushups, and featured automatic rifles, pistols and ammunition. He spoke beneath the black-and-white flag used by many Islamic militants.

Coulibaly explained why the publication and his target – the kosher supermarket – were selected.

“What we are doing is completely legitimate, given what they are doing,” he said.

The video appeared Sunday on militant websites, and two men who dealt drugs with Coulibaly confirmed his identify to the Associated Press. Police said they were investigating the conditions under which the video was posted.

Prosecutors said Coulibaly killed four hostages Friday in the supermarket, killed a policewoman, and shot and wounded a jogger. He died when police stormed the market, just minutes after security forces killed the Kouachi brothers.

Survivors say the Charlie Hebdo attackers claimed they were from al-Qaida in Yemen, the group the U.S. considers the most dangerous offshoot of that network.

But experts cast doubt over whether the attacks could have been coordinated by the rival groups. While Cherif Kouachi was convicted on terrorism charges in 2008, and his brother Said is believed to have trained and fought with al-Qaida forces while in Yemen, no evidence to date has emerged as to whether Coulibaly even went to Syria or Iraq, where IS holds territory. His widow was last traced to a town on the Turkey-Syria border a few days before the Paris attacks unfolded.

Since IS broke with al-Qaida last year, militants from the two groups have been locked in a bloody struggle in Iraq and Syria, where IS claims leadership of a universal caliphate of all Muslims and leadership of global jihad. The two groups have fought each other in battles that have left hundreds dead on both sides.

“It would be a massive surprise,” said Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London. “The idea that (the two groups) would consciously collaborate on operations abroad seems far-fetched.”

“If anything, the most likely scenario is that there was some sort of playing off each other. Maybe – if there was synchronizing – it happened at the grassroots level,” he said. Coulibaly’s attack was far less professional, and appeared to be more spontaneous.

“He seems to be the prototype of the young, disengaged French Muslim who suffers from this sense of alienation, and then comes (to support an) ideology that makes him feel important, clear-cut and gives him purpose and orientation.”

French police and judicial officials said they believed that while Coulibaly was committed to carrying out an attack, he was less of a strict ideologue or well-honed fighter than were the Kouachis — and could have found inspiration from either al-Qaida or IS.

While a member of al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen said anonymously Friday that the group had directed the Charlie Hebdo attack, the group has not issued an official statement on the matter.