"The organization considers that this is the least of the price which (French) President Francois Hollande and his people will pay for their new crusade," the communique added.
The kidnapping did not fit the network's usual means of operation according to Jean-Paul Rouiller, director of the Geneva Centre for Training and Analysis of Terrorism and an expert on AQIM.
Kidal was the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising last year that plunged Mali into chaos. A subsequent military coup created a power vacuum that allowed the rebels to seize control of the country's north.
On Tuesday, the daily newspaper Le Monde reported that three of the four alleged abductors had been identified by French intelligence. Both the French government and the presidency refused to comment on the allegations.
France announced Tuesday that it had increased the number of troops in the Kidal area by 150. The region is a stronghold of the Tuareg separatist rebels and where instability has grown in recent months.
At least 18 foreigners have been abducted, many of them French nationals, since 2003 the global intelligence group Stratfor reports.
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