Paris attacks: Islamic State claims interview with French attacker’s wife

Paris police released a photo of Amedy Coulibaly as a suspect in the killing Thursday of a policewoman, and the official named him as the man holed up in the market. A second suspect, a woman named Hayet Boumddiene, is the gunman’s accomplice. (Source: AP)

The Islamic State group has published what it says is an interview with the widow of the French gunman who attacked a kosher supermarket and a police officer in Paris last month, killing five people before he died in a raid by security forces.

The text interviews in French and English, published on Wednesday and Thursday, did not directly name Hayat Boumeddiene nor it show 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.

In the stilted responses laced with references to the Quran, she called on women to be patient and make life easier for their men.

Story continues below this ad

FILE – This security camera video footage obtained by Haberturk television on Jan. 12, 2015, shows Hayat Boumeddiene, and a male travel companion arriving at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport on Jan. 2, 2015. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency that Hayat Boumeddiene stayed at a hotel in Istanbul with another person before crossing the Syrian border on Thursday. (Source: AP)

The French police has been on a hunt for Hayat Boumeddiene since last month.  She was the partner of Amedy Coulibaly, who died when security forces stormed a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris where he had taken terrified shoppers hostage.

Coulibaly was suspected of gunning down a policewoman a day after the Charlie Hebdo massacre and stormed a Jewish supermarket hours before the Sabbath, killing four shoppers and taking others hostage.