Woman suicide bomber known to police, prior to Paris attacks

Police said that the woman who detonated a suicide vest during the officers’ raid at St. Denis, an alleged cousin of Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had been living a secular life but died an extremist's death.

Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26, used to drink alcohol and hardly visited a mosque. She was already under police surveillance after her name emerged in a drug-trafficking case, a police union official confirmed. Aitboulahcen died during the police raid at St. Denis on Wednesday when she blew herself up with a bomb vest.

Intelligence service officials have reportedly known her identity. She was believed to own her own construction company, Beko Construction, until 2012.

However, it is still unknown whether she was involved in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, which killed around 129 people. It was also not clear that how she was related to the Paris attacks mastermind. Three of the police officials reported her as Abaaoud’s cousin, though French people of North African origin use the term to refer to a close friend who is not a blood relation.

The police officials confirmed that she exchanged an anxious expression with police when she took her last breath. According to the Straits Times , one of the witnesses said that he heard the police addressing the woman, saying “We’re going to shoot.” The shooting outside the apartment resumed, when a sound of explosion was heard from the apartment’s window, he added.

“It was probably the woman who blew herself up,” the witness described the scene, continuing, “The windows shattered. Lots of objects from the apartment were thrown into the street, pieces of human flesh as well. They are still there. You can see a bit of the head, of skin, of ribs.”

The police, before the explosion, asked the suspect the whereabouts of her assumed boyfriend when she replied that Abaaoud was not her boyfriend. Once her links with the IS group was confirmed, she would likely be the first female suicide bombers across western Europe.

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