According to Yemeni intelligence, both Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, the two brothers who carried out a devastating attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo last Wednesday, were trained in camps run by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). This has once more drawn attention to the militant organization’s territorial base: Yemen.
Both brothers are believed to have visited Yemen in 2011 and stayed for a few weeks. Yemeni officials say the brothers met Anwar al-Awlaki there, the radical U.S. preacher and suspected al Qaeda spokesperson, who was killed that year in a U.S. drone strike. Officials also confirmed that both Kouachi brothers received weapons training in an AQAP training camp in the desert of Marib, located in the south of Yemen.
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