France terror: Female suspect may be in Syria

Ankara, Jan 11: A woman wanted in connection with the terror attacks on France a few days ago, is believed to have entered Turkey earlier this month and is now, possibly, in Syria, media reported Saturday.

Hayat Boumeddiene is believed to have entered Turkey Jan 2, according to a CNN report, which cited a Turkish prime ministry source. Turkish police have a track of her movements, the source said.

If this could be proved true, it would mean that Boumeddiene was not in France when Thursday's deadly attacks occurred, according to a Xinhua report.

The source added that Ankara did not arrest her due to a lack of timely intelligence from France.

A source close to French security services said Boumeddiene is thought to be no longer in France, CNN reported.

Boumeddiene is thought to have left for Turkey "of course to reach Syria," according to the French source, the report said.

Turkish authorities have informed French officials that Boumeddiene travelled from Turkey to Syria Thursday, and on Saturday, French authorities also said they believed that Boumeddiene had reached Syria from Turkey, Xinhua reported.

The 26-year-old woman was the partner of the extremist Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed Friday, in a fight with the police at a Jewish grocery store at Porte de Vincennes in southern Paris. Four hostages were also killed in the attack.

Police named Boumeddiene and Coulibaly as suspects in Thursday's killing of a policewoman in the southern Parisian suburb of Montrouge.

Boumeddiene escaped from the grocery store in the confusion as hostages ran away, CNN had earlier reported, citing French police union spokesman Pascal Disand.

According to Disant, the slain Kouachi brothers, who were behind the attack on the office of the Charlie Hebdo magazine Wednesday, and Coulibaly were part of the same jihadi groups, and Paris prosecutor Francois Molins indicated Boumedienne and Cherif Kouachi's wife were well-connected, saying they exchanged 500 phone calls in 2014, CNN reported.

A global search has been launched to nab Boumedienne.

IANS