While officials have not demonstrably linked the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, websites of a number of towns in France fell victims to a cyber-attack replacing the content of their sties with Islamic State flag in apparent celebration of the mass shooting.
“The Islamic State Stay Inchallah [God Willing], Free Palestine, Death To France, Death To Charlie” appears at the top in bright red against the black backdrop. The group L’Apoca-DZ took credit for the hack. The Daily Mirror reported the hackers provided a link to a Facebook page. However, a search for L’Apoca-Dz yields no results.
The towns hacked include Jouy-le-Moutier, Piscop, Goussainville, Val D’Oise, and Ezanville. The pages were disabled when the hack was discovered. They eventually returned to their original state.
Brothers Said and Cherif Kouchai told witnesses outside of the Charlie Hebdo headquarters to “tell the media that this is al-Qaeda in Yemen.” The group changed its name to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) a few years ago. The two men charged inside the satirical newspaper’s building and killed twelve people.
Charlie Hebdo editor Stephanne Charbonnier appeared in the March 2013 issue of al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine. Al-Qaeda listed nine people wanted for insulting Mohammed. The same picture circulated on social media after the attack, but with a red X over Charbonnier’s picture.
After the slaughter, radical Islamists celebrated on Twitter. Most of these accounts are associated with the Islamic State, but they cheered for the brothers because they “protected” Mohammed’s image. The same accounts mourned the loss of these “lions of Islam” after French officers killed the Kouchai brothers on Friday.