One of the two brothers suspected of carrying out the deadly shooting at a French satirical weekly met leading al-Qaeda preacher Anwar-al-Awlaki during a stay in Yemen in 2011, a senior Yemeni intelligence source told Reuters on Friday.
U.S. born and web-savvy, Awlaki was seen as an influential international recruiter to the al-Qaeda movement and a prominent figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group’s most active affiliate. He was killed in September 2011 in a drone strike widely attributed to the CIA.
U.S. and European sources close to the investigation said on Thursday that one of the suspects in the French attack, Said Kouachi, was in Yemen for several months training with AQAP.
The Yemeni source said Kouachi, 34, was among a number of foreigners who entered the country for religious studies. — Reuters
