France's most-wanted widow in interview with Islamic State
By LORI HINNANT
Feb. 12, 2015 10:07 AM EST
FILE - This photo provided by the Paris Police Prefecture Friday, Jan. 9, 2015 shows Hayat Boumedienne the suspect in the kosher market attack. Turkey's foreign minister said Monday Jan.12, 2015 that Boumedienne, wife of Amedy Coulibaly, one of the perpetrators of the terrorist rampage in France last week, crossed into Syria from Turkey on Jan. 8. The Islamic State group has put out publications claiming to have an interview with the widow of the gunman who attacked a kosher supermarket and a police officer, killing five people before he died in a raid by security forces. The text interviews in French and English, published Wednesday and Thursday, did not directly name Hayat Boumeddiene nor show any images of her. It appeared to be the first confirmation from Islamic State that she had joined the group in Syria, as was widely believed after a posthumous video emerged of her husband, Amedy Coulibaly, pledging allegiance to its leader. (AP Photo/Prefecture de Police de Paris, File)
PARIS (AP) — The Islamic State group published what it described as an interview with the widow of the French gunman who attacked a kosher supermarket and a police officer in Paris last month, claiming for the first time that she was among extremist fighters.
The text interviews in French and English, published Wednesday and Thursday, did not directly name Hayat Boumeddiene or show images of her, instead identifying her only as the wife of Amedy Coulibaly, or Umm Basur al-Muhajirah. She is considered key to the investigation into the attacks in Paris, which left 20 people dead including the gunmen, although she left France just beforehand.
The publication appeared to be the first confirmation from IS that she had joined the group in Syria, as was widely believed after a posthumous video emerged of Coulibaly, pledging allegiance to its leader.
In the stilted responses laced with references to the Quran, she called on women to be patient and make life easier for their men. She said Coulibaly himself would also have gone to Syria had it not "conflicted with his intent to carry out the operations in France." There was no way to confirm the circumstances of the interview, or even if the responses were hers.
Boumeddiene is believed to have traveled to Turkey and then crossed into Syria around the same time as the Jan. 7-9 attacks were unfolding in Paris. Coulibaly killed five people before he died in a raid by security forces. Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi attacked the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12.
