* Paris prosecutor says one victim killed by bullet to head
* Frenchmen found dead after failed rescue raid
* Al Qaeda statement does not say how the two men died
(Adds Paris prosecutor's comments)
DUBAI, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Thursday for the abduction of two Frenchmen found dead after a failed rescue attempt in Niger last week, but did not say how the men died.
"A group of mujahideen carried out on Friday, Jan. 7, a brave operation in the heart of the Niger capital Niamey, where they broke into the secured diplomatic neighbourhood and succeeded in kidnapping two Frenchmen," the group said in a sound recording e-mailed to Reuters and dated Jan. 12.
The bodies were found charred and with their hands tied behind their backs, according to two hospital sources in Niger who saw them after the failed rescue attempt on Saturday.
Medical examinations showed that one victim had been killed by a bullet to the head but further medical analysis was needed to establish a cause of death for the other, Paris prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said.
"These conclusions will be refined because we have ordered a number of toxicological, ballistic and pathological analyses to get more precision," he told a news conference in Paris.
The kidnappers were Touaregs but addressed each other in fluent Arabic, not the Touareg language, Marin said. Arabic is one of the languages commonly spoken by members of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The two Frenchmen were chosen at random, seemingly because they were sitting closest to the door of an expatriate restaurant which was full of foreigners on the night of the kidnapping last Saturday.
A total of nine people were killed during the failed rescue operation including the two Frenchmen, three Niger gendarmes and four kidnappers, Marin added.
UNIFORMS
Salah Abu Mohammed, who identified himself as a media official for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said in the recording that the two were killed when French and Niger forces attempted to rescue them, but gave no more details.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Monday he was almost certain that al Qaeda was behind the kidnapping of the aid worker and his visiting friend.
Abu Mohammed said the French government did not "learn from past failures and repeated the same folly where two battles took place between the mujahideen and French-Niger forces, resulting in a major failure in the attempt to rescue the hostages".
He said the abduction came "in the context of responding to France's repressive policies against Muslims and its participation in the crusade in Afghanistan". French troops serve in the NATO-led force fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan.
French forces handed to Niger authorities two other men in Niger uniforms who had fired on them during the operation.
"Some of (them) were wearing uniforms of the Niger gendarmerie, carrying weapons and their hands were not tied. They were fighting against us," French Defence Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire said.
AQIM, which operates across West and North Africa's vast Sahara desert, is holding another five French citizens, employees of French firms Areva and Vinci taken from the northern mining town of Arlit in September.
AQIM killed French tourist Michel Germaneau in July after kidnapping him in Niger three months earlier. (Additional reporting by John Irish and Nick Vinocur; writing by Mahmoud Habboush; editing by Andrew Hammond and Jason Neely)
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