Video Appears to Show Paris Gunman Pledging Allegiance to ISIS Leader
— -- The gunman suspected of killing a police officer and then four other people last week in Paris appears in a new video posted online pledging allegiance to the leader of the terror group ISIS and saying his murders and a separate massacre at a French magazine are "totally legitimate."
In the undated video uploaded to Twitter by an unidentified jihadi supporter, a man who appears to be Frenchman Amedy Coulibaly addresses the camera with a jihadist-associated flag in the background and an automatic weapon by his side, one of several guns shown in the video, as he says, "I pledge allegiance to the emir of the faithful Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi," the self-declared head of ISIS.
Coulibaly, speaking mostly in French but at times in halting Arabic, says that he, as well as the two brothers who killed 12 people in the Wednesday attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, were "avenging the prophet." He also repeats a claim he made to a French television station on Friday that his murder of a police officer and the four others at a kosher market, along with the attack on Charlie Hebdo, were "synchronized."
The seven-minute video splices together several scenes of Coulibaly speaking. It also lacks the graphics and other production trappings of an "official" ISIS video, such as the many released by the terror group in recent months.
When asked about Coulibaly's recorded pledge and the terror attacks' links to major terror groups abroad, Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News "This Week" there's still no "credible information that would allow us to make a determination as to which organization was responsible."
"I think it's clear that both organizations [ISIS and al Qaeda] pose a threat to the United States, as well as to its allies," he said.
However, Holder said there's no indication there's an "ongoing threat" to the American homeland.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the "U.S. intelligence community is aware of the video and is reviewing it to determine its authenticity."
"We will continue providing support to our French partners as they investigate these crimes," spokesperson Brian Hale said.
Coulibaly and the Charlie Hebdo attackers, identified as Cherif and Said Kouachi, were killed Friday in near simultaneous hostage rescue operations by French authorities, after a tense, sprawling manhunt for the gunmen.
Both Coulibaly and the Kouachis apparently spoke with a French television outlet during their respective standoffs with police. A man who identified himself as Cherif Kouachi reportedly told the station he was working for the al Qaeda affiliate AQAP just before Coulibaly said he was a member of ISIS. Al Qaeda and ISIS are believed to be rival terrorist groups.
