A manhunt continues in France for a woman officials believe was part of the attacks that rocked Paris this week.
French officials released a photo of Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, whom they say was involved in the killing of a policewoman in Paris on Thursday, and possibly was involved in the hostage standoff in a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris earlier today. That siege resulted in the killing of four hostages and the death of Amedy Coulibaly, 32, who is thought to be her husband or boyfriend.
U.S. officials say both Coulibaly and Boumeddiene were known to American intelligence authorities. They had been placed in the TIDE database of known or suspected terrorists. It is unclear whether Boumeddiene was also on the smaller no-fly list, which would have prevented her from traveling to the United States. U.S. officials say Coulibaly and the two brothers thought to be behind the killing of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Said and Cherif Kouachi, were all on the no-fly list.
The Kouachi brothers died in a fiery standoff with French police in a printing factory about 8 miles from Charles de Gaulle airport. No hostages died in that incident.
U.S. officials say Boumeddiene garnered the interest of French and American intelligence officials because of her association with Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers, which they believe has been longstanding. She had a connection to a 2010 plot to break an Algerian jihadi out of prison, they say. Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers also were linked to that plot.
Witnesses to the brothers' attacks across Paris — which include not just the murders at the magazine, but numerous carjackings and a gas station robbery — say the Kouachis told them they had been sent by al-Qaida's arm in Yemen, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Cherif Kouachi told a French television station that the brothers had been sent by AQAP to defend the Prophet Muhammad. Charlie Hebdo magazine had printed cartoons that Muslims felt mocked the prophet.
Officials are still trying to determine if the attack was actually directed by al-Qaida's arm in Yemen or if the group simply inspired it in a more general way. Said Kouachi is known to have trained with AQAP in Yemen in 2011. It is less clear whether his brother had gone to Yemen, too.
Cherif Kouachi told a French journalist that they stormed the Charlie Habdo offices on Wednesday at the behest of AQAP, and were inspired and supported by an American-born radical imam named Anwar al-Awlaki. Awlaki was killed in a drone attack in September 2011. Said Kouachi is thought to have been in Yemen just prior to that. It is unclear what the men had been doing since that time.
So far, U.S. officials say they haven't seen anything that suggests that either Kouachi brother had direct contacts with Awlaki. The connection might have been just on the Internet — where his lectures remain — rather than one-on-one.
U.S. officials say they have yet to find a U.S. connection to the Kouachis, Couibaly and Boumeddiene. The concern is that there would be an unconnected copycat attack here.
There have been reports that the brothers or Coulibaly might have traveled to Syria to get battlefield experience and training. But American officials say there is nothing they have found so far that suggests that happened.
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