The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On January 11, 2015, a Dailymotion account called Baqya (a reference to ISIS) posted a seven-minute video of "Abu Basir 'Abdallah Al-Afriki," namely Amedy Coulibaly, who perpetrated the January 9, 2015 attack in the kosher supermarket in Paris and murdered a policewoman in Montrouge on the day before. The video, titled "Soldier of the Caliphate," shows him pledging allegiance to ISIS and preparing for the attacks. It also features several segments in which he speaks to the camera and justifies his actions. Sitting with an ISIS flag behind him and a rifle beside him, he says: "What we are doing, avenging the Prophet, is completely legitimate, deserved and timely. You attacked the Caliphate, the Islamic State, [so] you are being attacked. You cannot attack and [expect] nothing in return."
Coulibaly also confirms his ties with the Kouachi brothers, perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting. He claims that he gave them thousands of Euros and helped them prepare for the shooting, and that he and they coordinated their actions but acted separately in order to maximize the impact. Finally, he also addresses the Muslims in Europe and France in particular, calling them to join the jihad "to defend Islam."
The video was clearly edited after the supermarket attack, since it begins with some captions that refer to it. It was apparently filmed shortly before the attack, in several different locations. One of the segments may have been filmed after Coulibaly's January 8 attack on the policewoman, since he says that he "carried out a small [operation] against the police."
