Fresh al Qaeda warning to France as Charlie Hebdo set to release Muhammad cartoon again

Paris: Even as France is struggling to come to terms with the deadly attacks carried out on the office of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, the terror-stricken country on Tuesday received a fresh terrorist threat – this time from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

According to a tweet by SITE monitoring group, Al Qaeda's branch in North Africa (AQIM), commended the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine and urged Muslims to follow the example of Kouachi brothers who killed 12 people last Wednesday.

AQIM Issues Statement Praising Charlie Hebdo Attacks, Urges Muslims to Follow Example of G... http://t.co/qH8PztkWyy — SITE Intel Group (@siteintelgroup) January 12, 2015

Blaming France for attacking Muslim countries, the AQIM threatened that the country will continue to remain exposed to terror attacks as long as it bombarded people in Iraq and Syria, the CNN quoted the terror group's statement.

The AQIM also threatened French media against publishing Prophet cartoons.

"France pays the cost of its violence on Muslim countries and the violation of their sanctity," AQIM said in a statement.

"As long as its soldiers occupy countries such as Mali and Central Africa and bombard our people in Syria and Iraq, and as long as its lame media continues to undermine our Prophet (Mohammed), France will expose itself to the worst and more," the CNN cited the AQIM statement.

It can be noted that the commando-style attack perpetrated on Charlie Hebdo's office by Kouachi brothers was claimed by Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The SITE Intelligence group quoted a sharia official of AQAP as threatening France with more operations if it does not stop "fighting" Islam and its symbols, and Muslims.

The warning comes just a day before the Charlie Hebdo magazine's fresh issue is due to hit the newsstands on Wednesday. After a brazen assault on Charlie Hebdo's office killed eight cartoonists, the magazine has decided to come back with defiance and its fresh print will feature a caricature of Prophet Muhammad, with tears in his eyes, holding “JE SUIS CHARLIE” (”I am Charlie”) sign below the headline “TOUT EST PARDONNE” ("All is forgiven”).

Usually, the magazine used to print 60,000 copies of the weekly, however in light of humongous demand from across the country and the world, a whopping 3 million copies of Charlie Hebdo's fresh issue will be published in a total of 16 different languages.

Meanwhile, the country is still reeling under the shock generated by three blood-soaked days that killed 17 people and France has turned into a fortress with 10, 000 troops deployed to protect sensitive areas.

In what is an unprecedented security measure taken in the aftermath of deadly three-day attacks in France, 10,000 troops will be mobilised across the country's sensitive areas to protect the people as "threats remain," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday.

Also, nearly 5,000 security forces and police will be roped in to protect over 700 Jewish schools in the country.