Updated 8.15pm
ONE OF THE key accomplices of the gunmen responsible for three days of terror attacks may have been in Turkey at the time of the attacks, it has emerged.
Hayat Boumeddiene — the partner of the attacker behind yesterday’s siege at a Jewish supermarket in Paris — was today being hunted by French police.
However it is now understood the woman may be in Syria with sources telling AFP that she was in Turkey at the time of the attacks. It is tbelieved she arrived in Turkey before the killings and then fled to Syria.
“She entered Turkey on January 2,” a source said, adding that she was believed to have moved on to the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa and then to Syria but there was “no concrete data” to prove it.
The source said Turkey did not arrest her because of a lack of intelligence from France. “We do not have the luxury to prevent everyone entering without intelligence sharing,” the source said.
Members of the French government meet this morning to decide on new measures aimed at thwarting a repeat of the attacks, which culminated in a massacre of 12 people at a satirical newspaper, and yesterday’s supermarket attack — which left four hostages dead.
World leaders have phoned President Francois Hollande to express their personal sympathies. Tomorrow, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Britain’s David Cameron as well as Italy’s Matteo Renzi, and Spain’s Mariano Rajoy have agreed to join in a unity rally in central Paris.
With explosions and gunfire, security forces yesterday ended the three days of terror, killing the two al-Qaida-linked brothers who staged a murderous rampage at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and an accomplice — Amedy Coulibaly — who seized hostages at the kosher supermarket to try to help the brothers escape.
Twenty people are dead, including the three gunmen.
Boumeddiene — the common law wife of Coulibaly — was said to be with him when a policewoman was killed in Paris on Thursday but this is now not believed to be the case.
Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen said it directed the attack against the publication Charlie Hebdo to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, a frequent target of the weekly’s satire.
The brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi —- shot dead yesterday as they came out of a warehouse shooting at police —- were not unknown to authorities: one had a terrorism-related conviction for ties to a network sending fighters to battle American forces in Iraq, and both were on the US no-fly list, according to a US official.
Hollande urged his nation to remain united and vigilant, and the city shut down a central Jewish neighbourhood following fears of more violence.
“The threats facing France are not finished,” Hollande said. “We are a free people who don’t cave to pressure.”
Associated Press, with additional reporting by Daragh Brophy and Michelle Hennessy.
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