A video has emerged that appears to show the man who took hostages in a kosher supermarket in Paris pledging his allegiance to ISIS.
The video begins with a written exhortation from the Quran to fight the enemies of Allah interspersed with images of Amedy Coulibaly doing physical exercise. The video then cuts to images of weaponry.
Coulibaly is described as a “Soldier of the Caliphate” and the author of attacks on January 8 when he killed a policeman and on January 9 when he took 17 people hostage in a Jewish grocery and killed 5 of them. The video also says he placed an explosive charge in the tank of a car which subsequently exploded in Paris.
Coulibaly, speaking in French, then declares his allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi of ISIS before struggling to read a passage in Arabic.
The gunman then confirms that he was working with the Kouachi brothers who mounted the Charlie Hebdo attack to apparently create a diversion to give them “the opportunity to finish what they had started.”
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He then says the Charlie Hebdo attack was “deserved” and that the attackers had “avenged the Prophet.” He adds that as long the Islamic State is being attacked “you” will be attacked.
The scene switches and Coulibaly is now speaking in front of the flag used by ISIS. He then asks Western Muslims a series of questions including: “What do you do when entire populations are massacred and the Prophet is insulted?” He says mosques are full of young, healthy, sporty men, but still few of them defend Islam.
The video ends with a another written exhortation from the Quran to fight in the way of Allah, to incite the believers to fight, and that Allah will punish the evil-doers.
Like other media outlets, 5Pillars has chosen not to broadcast the video but has described its contents purely for our readers’ edification.
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