Al Qaida’s branch in Yemen tonight claimed it had directed the attack against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris “as revenge for the honour” of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

The mother and brother of a British-born photojournalist have appealed to his al-Qaida captors to spare him, saying he “was only trying to do good”.

The al-Qaida mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was killed this week at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu by Somali forces who did not immediately realise they had killed the most wanted man in East Africa, officials said today.