Woman tied to Paris attacks sought in Turkey

GAZIANTEP, Turkey – A woman sought by French police after the terrorist attacks in Paris this past week left France days before the attacks occurred, traveling to Turkey and possibly into Syria, a senior Turkish official said Saturday.

French police have described Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, the companion of one of the suspects in the attacks, as “armed and dangerous” and began a nationwide search for her on Friday, the day after she was suspected of involvement in the killing of a policewoman in a suburb south of Paris.

But Boumeddiene had arrived in Istanbul from Madrid with a male companion on Jan. 2 and, according to cellphone records, on Thursday was in Akcakale, a Turkish town south of the city of Sanliurfa and close to the Syrian border, the official said.

He identified the male companion only by his first name, Mehdi, and withheld his last name, saying Turkish authorities are looking for him. The two had return tickets to Madrid for Friday, but they didn’t make the flight.

Islamic State extremists have controlled the town of Tal Abyad, which is directly across the border from Akcakale, for more than a year, and they dominate territory surrounding the nearby Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

Amedy Coulibaly – described variously as Boumeddiene’s husband or boyfriend – is suspected of shooting the policewoman. He told a French television station Friday that he was a member of Islamic State.

Boumeddiene’s escape to Turkey could be an embarrassment to French anti-terrorism authorities. French officials reportedly had been watching Boumeddiene and Coulibaly, who were known to be active in jihadi circles.

Tribune News Service