Three women arrested in raids in France were a terror cell directed by ISIS from Syria, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Friday.
Advertisement
Security became more visible Friday as the investigation broadened and the discovery of the auto on a cobble-stone street near the historic church sparked fears of another terrorist attack in France. She also wrote another letter, in which she pledged allegiance to IS, RTL reported.
The woman, identified only as Sarah H., then became engaged to Adel Kermiche, one of two militants who slit the throat of an elderly priest in July near the northern city of Rouen, the prosecutor said.
Bouzar said the Islamic State group lures men and women to radicalism for different reasons, but the recruitment and radicalization process is the same.
Sarah H., 23, had been engaged to Larossi Abballa, whom authorities said killed a police officer and his girlfriend at their home in June before turning his gun on himself, according to Molins.
Scores of radicalised French nationals or others resident in France are in Syria and Iraq fighting for Islamic State.
Police said the daughter of the car’s owner, described by her father as being radicalized, is also wanted for questioning. During the arrest, one of the women stabbed a police officer with a large kitchen knife, and Madani jumped on another officer attempting to stab him.
On Sunday, a Peugeot 607 containing seven gas cylinders, including an empty one on the front passenger seat and three cans of diesel fuel was found near the famous tourist place Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
The interior ministry said all train stations had been put on alert but that the intended target had been the Gare de Lyon, a mainline train station less than three kilometres from Notre Dame in central Paris.
These women “were radicalized fanatics clearly preparing fresh violent actions”, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said late Thursday at a press conference in Paris.
Investigators believe the women were planning several crimes, from exploding a vehicle loaded with gas and diesel containers 200 metres from Notre Dame – one of the world’s most visited churches – to an unspecified attack at the Gare de Lyon, a mainline station for rail services to the French Riviera, and the knifing of police officers in the street.
Advertisement
French policemen took part in a raid in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, a suburb south of Paris, on Thursday. They are aged 19, 23 and 39 years respectively. Elsewhere, police in Paris used explosives to disable an illegally parked motorcycle.
