Cherif Kouachi

Cherif Kouachi

 

Cherif Kouachi

Cherif Kouachi,
a suspect in the Charlie Hebdo slaughter, visited Yemen in 2011 and French authorities were aware of his contacts with terrorist organizations in Yemen and Syria, Molins said at a press conference.

• The government of Yemen has launched an investigation into a possible al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula link to the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack, Mohammed Albasha, Yemen's spokesman in Washington, tweeted Friday.

• Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for orchestrating the deadly terrorist attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the founder of the magazine The Intercept, Jeremy Scahill, told CNN. CNN has not independently confirmed this claim.

• Four hostages were killed and 15 survived in the standoff between an armed terrorist and police at a Paris kosher grocery store on Friday, according to Israeli government sources who characterized a phone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President François Hollande.

• U.S. President Barack Obama said he wants the people of France to know that the United States "stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow" after this week's terror. He told a crowd in Tennessee that "we stand for freedom and hope and dignity of all human beings, (and) that's what Paris stands for."

• The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to law enforcement across the United States discussing the Paris terrorist attack this week and the sophistication of the tactics, a U.S. law enforcement source told CNN. The bulletin says the attacks demonstrated "a degree of sophistication and training traditionally not seen in recent small armed attacks," the official said.

• A man claiming to be Amedy Coulibaly, the suspected hostage-taker at the Paris grocery store, told CNN affiliate BFMTV that he belonged to the Islamist militant group ISIS. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the recording.

Cherif Kouachi