Charlie Hebdo attackers reportedly met late Al Qaeda preacher at Yemen prior to shootout

One of two brothers suspected of carrying out the deadly shooting at a French satirical weekly visited Yemen in 2011 and met the late al Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki during his stay, a senior Yemeni intelligence source
told Reuters on Friday.

Related: Charlie Hebdo: Islamic State praise attackers calling them 'heroic jihadists'

The source said Said Kouachi, was in Yemen for a number of months in 2011 as one of the foreigners who entered the country for religious studies, but there was no confirmed information whether he was trained by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the group's most active affiliates.