Global Al Qaeda head Ayman Al Zawahiri.

During his standoff with police on Wednesday, Mohammed Merah, the man who confessed to 7 murders in Southern France recently, claimed to be a member of Al Qaeda.

The Middle East Media Research Institute based in Washington D.C. is reporting that Merah is affiliated with Fursan Al-Izza, a French branch of Al Qaeda.

“Fursan Al-‘Izza has supporters and members in Limoges, Caen, Paris (specifically in the 17th district and the immigrant suburb La Courneuve), and Toulouse, the scene of the shooting,” MEMRI said in an e-mail to reporters.

Referring to the French penal code, the group’s self proclaimed spokesman Abu Hamza, also known as Mohamed Achamlane, said “This is the book that should be burned,” according to MEMRI.

Merah has been engaged in an armed standoff with French security officials on Wednesday.  French media had reported that police apprehended Merah, but the country’s Interior Minister Claude Gueant said those reports were false.