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France probes suspected militant women in new terror plot

Police officers patrol around Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on September 10, 2016, as part of the “operation sentinelle”.

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Police said the first vehicle, found near the Notre Dame in central Paris, contained six full canisters of gas and three jerry cans of fuel.

On Sunday September 4, a auto loaded with gas cylinders was found near Notre Dame Cathedral alongside jerry cans of diesel, leading to the discovery of a plot to attack a Paris railway station under the direction of the IS group.

Three other women were arrested Thursday night near Paris, including the 19-year-old daughter of the vehicle’s owner. Her written pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State was found by police, he added.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said at a news conference that the women were inspired by IS.

Five women and two men have been arrested in the case.

Despite the tracking, with plots uncovered, “There will be new attacks”. RTL TV reported that the suspects had been planning to set the canisters on fire, but something reportedly went wrong, and they had to hurriedly leave the site.

She was arrested in southern France on Tuesday with her boyfriend, who has since been released.

A security official said Sunday that the boy was arrested a day earlier after France’s intelligence services “detected a threat”.

“A group has been destroyed”, said French President François Hollande, referring to the arrests, while warning that “there are others [extremists groups]” remaining.

Mr Molins said the investigation of the aborted attack had led to the dismantling of a “terrorist commando of young women” aligned with the Islamic State group.

French security services are particularly anxious about the danger posed by extremists returning from Syria after fighting with IS forces.

The auto loaded with gas cylinders belonged to Madani’s father, who flagged her to police on Sunday 14 hours after the vehicle was discovered.

More than a third of the almost 700 French citizens who have reached Iraq and Syria are women, according to government figures. Another woman had been engaged to be married to two known terrorists.

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A total of 238 people in France have been killed and hundreds wounded since January 2015 in a string of attacks attributed to, or fomented by, the Islamic State jihadist group.

Three Women Arrested For Plotting Attack Were Directed By ISIS: French Authorities