(CNN)The United States is now working on the assumption that Charlie Hebdo attacker Said Kouachi met American terrorist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki at some point in Yemen and received orders from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to carry out an attack, a U.S. official tells CNN. 

The official said Kouachi's motivation for waiting so long -- possibly since 2011 -- to launch an attack was not clear. 

U.S. officials Sunday said American authorities don't have evidence yet directly linking AQAP to specifically ordering the Paris attack last week at the offices of the satirical magaine. "We don't have credible information, at least as yet, to indicate who was responsible, who sponsored this act. That is clearly one of the things that we have to make a determination of," Attorney General Eric Holder told CNN's Gloria Borger on "State of the Union." 

French security agencies had been monitoring Said Kouachi and his brother, Cherif, but stopped months before the two carried out the attack that left 12 people dead. The French monitoring faded despite a previous tip-off from American intelligence agencies that one of them had likely trained with al Qaeda in Yemen, a French news magazine reported Saturday. 

Said Kouachi is suspected of slipping off for terror training in Yemen during a trip he made with another French national to Oman between July 25 and August 15 in 2011, according to multiple French officials who spoke to L'Express national security reporter Eric Pelletier. Pelletier shared the details of his reporting with CNN. 
Did he go with anyone else?
with another French national