French authorities are trying to confirm if one of the Charlie Hebdo terrorists and notorious "underwear bomber" Umar Abdulmutallab, whose attempt to down a jet in 2009 failed when a bomb packed in his underwear failed to go off, may have been roommates at one time.
Investigators are still trying to figure out all of the connections between the three terror suspects who were killed on Friday and networks around the world, reports
CNN. Officials aren't confirming the possible link between the underwear bomber and Charlie Hebdo assassin Said Kouachi.
Journalist and researcher Mohammed al-Kibsi said he'd spoken to Kouachi in Yemen in 2011 and 2012, reports CNN, but before that, Kouachi and Abdulmutallab were roommates for at least a week in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
Kouachi was said to have been in Yemen to study Arabic grammar, said al-Kibsi, and stayed with Abdulmutallab for about a week in 2009.
In addition to living in the same apartment, al-Kibsi told CNN, Kouachi and Abdulmutallab went to pray together at the famed Al-Tabari School. He claimed Kouachi first arrived in Yemen in 2009 and stayed until 2010, when he left and came back at the end of the year, remaining through most of 2011.
His statements may confirm U.S. findings that Kouachi, who was killed with his brother, Cherif, Friday, had received weapons training in Yemen in 2011 from al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
But there has been no official confirmation that he and Abdulmutallab had dealings, reports CNN, and a senior Yemen official said Kouachi came into the country several times, legally, with a visa.
"Said was not being watched during the duration of his stay in Yemen because he was not on the watch list," the official told CNN.
Police officers also killed Amedy Coulibaly, who was suspected of killing a French policewoman on Thursday and who held hostages at a kosher market Friday.
The news about the possible connection came as AQAP, the Al Qaida branch in Yemen, said it directed the attack against Charlie Hebdo to follow up on previous threats, and after Cherif Kouachi said the group gave him his orders, reports
The Daily Mail.
"The leadership of #AQAP directed the operation, and they have chosen their target carefully as a revenge for the honor of Prophet (pbuh) [peace be upon him]," said an AQAP statement. "'The target was in France in particular because of its obvious role in the war on Islam and oppressed nations."
Related stories:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.