More than a week after the Paris terror attacks and with an investigation in full swing, the evidence points to an international conspiracy by militants to bring terror to the streets of France’s capital.
There are reports of a new accomplice in addition to the three gunmen killed by French authorities and the widow of one, who escaped.
There’s a money trail that points to Yemen and a cache of weapons reportedly found in an apartment.
This all comes as a nation continues to mourn and Parisians flock to newsstands in support of the satirical magazine targeted by the terrorists.
Charlie Hebdo
Everyone seems to want a piece of history.
Three million copies of Charlie Hebdo’s first edition since the terror attack flew off newsstand racks on Wednesday. Another million or so went on sale Thursday.
The cover features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed crying as he holds a sign saying “Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie,” beneath the headline “All is forgiven.” This run of the magazine could reach 5 million copies.
The victims
Two more funerals were being held on Thursday for victims of the violence.
They are policeman Franck Brinsolaro and Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac. Both were killed at the magazine’s offices.
Brinsolaro was on duty as a protection officer and Verlhac was there for an editorial meeting when authorities said brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi burst into the newsroom and gunned down staffers, killing 12 and wounding 11.
The claim
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility Wednesday for last week’s rampage at the satirical magazine.
The attack was years in the making, AQAP commander Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi said in a video, claiming U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was the mastermind behind it.
Al-Awlaki was the terror group’s spokesman before a U.S. drone strike killed him in Yemen in 2011.
For days, intelligence analysts have been trying to piece together whether the gunmen who attacked the magazine, Said and Cherif Kouachi, met him on trips to Yemen — a theory that could be bolstered by the new video’s claim.
Al-Ansi praised the magazine attack, saying it was revenge for Charlie Hebdo’s depictions of Mohammed.
U.S. authorities said they think the video is authentic. But they weren’t ready to say that AQAP helped carry out the assault.
AQAP did not claim responsibility for Friday’s deadly siege at a kosher grocery store in Paris, but praised it.
“It was a blessing from Allah” that the kosher market siege, in which four hostages were killed, took place about the same time, al-Ansi said.
Possible accomplice
French security services have identified a suspected accomplice in that attack, according to the French newspaper Le Parisien.
Police sources cited by the newspaper said one line of investigation is that the accomplice, a man from a Paris suburb, may have driven gunman Amedy Coulibaly to the kosher supermarket, where Coulibaly later shot dead four people.
Coulibaly was killed in a police raid to end the siege. The Kouachi brothers also are dead. But investigators’ efforts to track down possible suspects tied to last week’s attacks are continuing.
Le Parisien’s report said investigators identified Coulibaly’s suspected accomplice using keys for a motorbike discovered in an apartment they raided over the weekend.
Neighbors told CNN the apartment, in the Paris suburb of Gentilly, was raided Saturday by police.
Also found inside the apartment, according to Le Parisien: a stash of weapons, explosives and two ISIS flags.
Coulibaly purportedly told authorities before he was killed that he belonged to ISIS.
Police also think the suspected accomplice may have been responsible for shooting and wounding a jogger last week — an attack that the Paris prosecutor has said could be tied to Coulibaly because the ammunition used was the same as ammunition found at the scene of the kosher market attack, Le Parisien said.
Paris police would not comment to CNN on the contents of the report.
Le Parisien says Coulibaly’s suspected accomplice, whom the newspaper did not name, may have fled France, possibly for Syria.
Officials have also said they believe Hayat Boumeddiene, Coulibaly’s widow who may have played a role in the attacks, has fled to Syria.
The money trail
U.S. officials have told CNN it’s believed that when Cherif Kouachi traveled to Yemen in 2011, he returned carrying money from AQAP earmarked to carry out the attack. Investigators said the terrorist group could have given as much as $20,000, but the exact amount has not been verified.
French newspaper La Voix du Nord reports that Coulibaly also secured funds that may have been used in the attack on the kosher supermarket.
He got the loan for $7,000 (6,000 euros) from the Cofidis Bank in Villeneuve d’Ascq, in northern France.
The paper reported the amount that Coulibaly borrowed was not high enough to require an explanation of how the money would be spent. He took out the loan in December.
Obama and Cameron
U.S. President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron are expected to discuss the Paris attacks when they meet Thursday and Friday in Washington.
The two leaders pledged to safeguard “our way of life” in a jointly written opinion piece for the “Times of London.”
“We will continue to stand together against those who threaten our values and our way of life,” they said in Thursday’s edition.
“Along with our French allies, we have made clear to those who think they can muzzle freedom of speech and expression with violence that our voices will only grow louder.”
More terror cases
With France on its highest level of alert, 10,000 troops have deployed across the country. Thousands of police officers are on patrol, including hundreds assigned to protect Jewish schools.
Since the attacks, dozens of cases have been opened in France against people accused of expressing support for terrorism since the attacks, the Justice Ministry said.
It’s unclear how many people are blamed for the 54 infractions. The cases include investigations involving phone threats, cyberattacks and Facebook posts, the ministry said.
Some are in prison awaiting trial, some have already been convicted, and some have been released with a notice of a court date, ministry spokesman Pierre Rance said.
Penalties for the alleged crimes vary, Rance said.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira “considers that words or actions of a racist or anti-Semitic nature, or that cause hateful, violent, or discriminatory behavior, or advocate terrorism, or target security forces must be fought and pursued with the utmost vigor,” her office said in a statement.
She “asked prosecutors to exercise extreme reactivity in the conduct of public action against the perpetrators of such crimes,” the statement said.
Paris on edge
CNN affiliate BFMTV on Thursday reported a scare outside the Elysee Palace, the official residence of French President Francois Hollande.
A car drove the wrong way up a one-way street and struck a police officer. She was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The driver had been drinking, according to authorities.
Police don’t believe it has anything to do with the terror attacks and Hollande was not at the palace at the time of the incident.
