France suspect on the run: Who is 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene?

 By 
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Two brothers wanted in the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris were killed Friday in a police raid on a building near the Charles de Gaulle airport. A third suspect, possibly connected to the brothers, was also killed in a separate raid after he held hostages at a kosher market in eastern Paris.

But one more suspect remains at large.

French authorities named Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, as a suspect in Thursday's shooting of a policewoman in the Paris suburb of Montrouge. It's unclear what role, if any, Boumeddiene, played in the hostage crisis on Friday or the Charlie Hebdo attack on Wednesday.

Le Monde tweeted a picture, purporting to show Boumeddiene fully veiled and aiming a crossbow at the camera.

Les selfies de Coulibaly et de sa compagne, arbalète à la main http://t.co/USqEhJmIr9 pic.twitter.com/rCgmKESaQA— Le Monde (@lemondefr) January 9, 2015

According to the Associated Press, Boumeddiene was the wife of Amedy Coulibal, the hostage-taker at the kosher market who was also a suspect in the shooting of the police officer. Boumeddiene reportedly met Coulibaly after he was released from prison in 2010.

The two also visited Djamel Beghal, a convicted al-Qaeda terrorist, while he was under house arrest in southern France. During the visit, Coulibaly and Boumeddiene took a series of pictures, which Le Monde published on Friday.

Le Monde now published pictures of Amedi Coulibaly, the attacker of the kosher supermarket, and Hayat Boumeddiene pic.twitter.com/Q92byhaJg6— Conflict News (@rConflictNews) January 9, 2015

Coulibaly served a four-year sentence for his involvement in a plot to free Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, who was a member of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. Belkacem was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the 1995 Paris metro bombing that injured 30.

French anti-terrorism officials interviewed Boumeddiene in 2010, according to The Guardian.

Her location, as of Friday evening local time, remains unclear.

#vosquestions : Nos sources nous ont confirmé qu' Hayat Boumeddiene, 26 ans n'était pas présente porte de #Vincennes http://t.co/gkKm9x3Y1i— Le Monde Live (@lemondelive) January 9, 2015

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