A top leader of Yemen's Al Qaeda branch has claimed responsibility for last week's attack on a Paris newspaper when two masked gunmen killed 12 people, including much of the weekly's editorial staff and two police officers.

Nasr al-Ansi, a commander of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the branch is known, appeared in an 11-minute internet video, saying that the massacre at Charlie Hebdo was in 'vengeance for the prophet'.

The paper had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which is considered an insult in Islam

Al-Ansi said France belongs to the 'party of Satan' and warned of more 'tragedies and terror'. He said Yemen's Al Qaeda branch 'chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation'.

He described the gunmen who carried out the massacre as 'heroes of Islam' in the 11-minute rant.

The news follows a survivors' edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine selling out within hours of going on sale in France, with the print run increased to five million copies.