Footage of Amedy Coulibaly refers to Charlie Hebdo attackShooting of a jogger on Wednesday also linked to gunmen

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A video showing the terrorist who attacked a Parisian kosher grocery store aligning himself with Islamic State (Isis) has been circulated by propagandists working for the extremist Islamic group hours before the start of a march for unity in the French capital attended by scores of world leaders.

In the seven-minute, 16-second video the supermarket attacker Amedy Coulibaly, who shot dead four hostages during a five-hour siege on Friday before being killed by police, is described as a “soldier of the caliphate” and appears to swear allegiance to Isis chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Dressed variously in a camouflage flak jacket or a white robe, or shown beside an assault rile or exercising, Coulibaly answers a series of onscreen questions in fluent French and stumbling Arabic. Coulibaly says he and the Kouachi brothers – responsible for the attacks on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week – had decided to synchronise their attacks.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest In the video, Coulibaly said he was in close contact with the Kouachi brothers, who killed 12 people during an attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Coulibaly’s answers and the tense he employs also suggest that some segments may have been filmed following the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices but before Coulibaly’s raid on the supermarket.

“We did some things together, some things separate, that way we would have more of an impact … we arranged it to synchronise [our movements] so we would go out at the same time, which was not a problem.”

The video footage emerged on Sunday from known Isis propaganda accounts as crowds began gathering at two of Paris’s most symbolic sites, Place de la République and Place de la Nation, in preparation for a march in support of those killed this week.

Many brought flags and placards, others wore black T-shirts and badges declaring “Je suis Charlie” in support of the 12 people gunned down at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine on Wednesday morning.

“I’m feeling very emotional and I felt I had to be here today,” said Sophie, a student who set down a small bouquet of flowers.

About 1 million people are expected to gather in the French capital for what is set to be the biggest demonstration of public unity since the liberation in 1944 after three days last week that left 17 people and three gunmen dead.

The French president, François Hollande, on Sunday welcomed world leaders at the Elysée palace, including the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, before the mass rally seen as a show of defiance and determination to stand firm against terrorism.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will also take part in the march in honour of the four Jewish victims of an attack on a Kosher supermarket on Friday at the Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris.

David Cameron, the UK prime minister, was due to take part in the march along with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and King Abdullah of Jordan.

Earlier on Sunday, in an emotional ceremony, hundreds gathered to pay tribute to Ahmed Merabet, the police officer gunned down in the Charlie Hebdo attack. The hashtag #JesuisAhmed has joined #JesuisCharlie for those wishing to show their solidarity with all the victims.

Even as Paris gathered to remember the dead, fresh details were emerging of the attacks from the video of Coulibaly.

Associated Press reported on Sunday that the shooting of a jogger in a Paris suburb on the same day as the Charlie Hebdo massacre has been linked to the gunman who killed a policewoman and four hostages at a kosher grocery.

In a brief statement, the prosecutor said ballistics tests on shell cases from the shooting on Wednesday in Fontenay aux Roses linked them to the automatic weapon at the kosher store stormed two days later. The prosecutor said the jogger was seriously wounded.

On Friday Coulibaly took over the kosher grocery, demanding freedom for his fellow conspirators Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, who carried out the massacre at Charlie Hebdo. At the time Coulibaly took over the supermarket, the Kouachi brothers were under siege in a printing house near Charles de Gaulle airport north-east of the capital.

Coulibaly is also responsible for shooting a policewoman to death on Thursday.

The video has been edited to include extracts of news reports on the attack on the kosher supermarket in the background – confirming the video was produced after his death.

Asked in a question shown in text onscreen why he decided to carry out the attacks, Coulibaly responds: “It’s perfectly legitimate, amply deserved … You and your coalition carry out bombings regularly over there, you kill civilians, you kill fighters – and why, because we apply sharia? Is it you decides what goes on on this earth? No. We won’t allow it. We are going to fight.”

Asked onscreen what his advice to Muslims in France was, Coulibaly puts forward a number of rhetorical questions including: “What are you doing when the prophet is insulted repeatedly, what are you doing when they massacre entire populations?”

In central Paris on Sunday, about 2,200 armed police and gendarmes were being deployed along the 3km march route, a boulevard linking Place de la République and Place de la Nation.

Hollande received French Jewish leaders before seeing the numerous heads of state and government representatives who had travelled to France to show their solidarity. He was pictured walking in the palace gardens with Abbas.

The Jewish community has been traumatised by Friday’s hostage-taking at the kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes.

Speaking to reporters before meeting Hollande and the prime minister, Manuel Valls, the president of the Jewish umbrella group the CRIF, said: “This is a war.”

The CRIF president, Roger Cukierman, condemned those who were expressing support for the Kouachi brothers, killed in a shootout by police on Friday at the same time as a separate police assault killed Coulibaly at Vincennes.

“It is intolerable that there is a hashtag on social media saying #IamKouachi and that this has been retweeted 18,000 times,” he said. Cukierman branded the tweets as “an apology for murder” that should be pursued through the courts.

The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said: “The whole of France is grieving.”