[ 2015-01-11 ]

Amedy Coulibaly, who killed a policewoman and four hostages, pledged himself to Isis

Kosher supermarket gunman pledged allegiance to Isis in video
The gunman responsible for killing a policewoman
and four hostages in a kosher store in France
pledged allegiance to Islamic State and calling on
“Muslim brothers” to carry out similar attacks
in a video released online today.

The footage shows Amedy Coulibaly speaking in
front of an Isis emblem, defending the attacks
carried out on the satirical newspaper Charlie
Hebdo in Paris and the Jewish store in Vincennes.

Coulibaly was shot dead by police on Friday after
he took 12 hostages at the supermarket. Some of
the video appearing to have been shot while he was
on the run as he mentioned both Wednesday’s
shootings at the magazine offices and the killing
of Clarissa Jean-Philippe, a police officer he
shot in the back in Paris.

In the seven-minute clip entitled “soldier of
the Caliphate”, the Senegalese-born Frenchman,
referred to as Aboü Bassir AbdAllah al-Ifriqip in
a caption, is seen doing push-ups at one point and
features an arsenal of weapons.

The edited clip begins with a French radio report
of the supermarket siege in which Coulibaly was
gunned down by police.

Coulibaly appears in various attire in the footage
including a military jacket and a white robe.

Speaking directly to the camera in French and a
pre-written Arabic script, he swears allegiance to
“Caliiph Ibrahim”, also known as Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis.

He said that he “swore allegiance as soon as the
Caliphate was declared”.

Regarding his links to Cherif and Saïd Kouachi,
the brothers behind the attack on the office of
Charlie Hebdo, Coulibaly said: “The brothers of
our team were split into two groups… I went out
a bit against the police.

“If we did things a bit together and a bit
separately it was to have more impact.”

Apparently speaking about one of the Kouachi
brothers, he added: “I helped him in his project
by giving him a few thousand euros so he could
finish off what he had bought.

“We manage to synchronise to go out at the same
time so we don’t cause each other any problems
as we are sought of over the same affair.”

In the footage, in which he appears next to an
automatic weapon, Coulibaly gave his attempt at a
justification for this week’s attacks.

He said: “If you attack the Caliphate and the
Islamic State, you will be attacked.

“You and your coalition – you almost above all
– bombarded regularly over there, civilians and
fighters.”

He then called on “Muslim brothers in France”
to join the extremist movement and claimed to have
“scoured the mosques, in France, many in
Paris” and that they are “full of vigour,
sporty young men”.

“Why with all these thousands, millions of young
people, there aren’t others to defend their
own?”

It is not clear who filmed and edited the video,
however the Site Intelligence Group said it had
verified the video.

The footage was released by Isis on Twitter and
was posted on Islamist social networks.

Coulibaly took over the kosher grocery store on
Friday, while the Kouachi brothers were trapped in
a printing house near Charles de Gaulle airport.
All three men were killed by security forces.

Hayat Boumediene, Coulibaly’s widow, who has
been named as an accomplice, is believed to have
travelled to a Turkish city near the Syrian border
when all traces of her were lost, according to a
Turkish intelligence official.

Source - The Times(UK)

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