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Paris Attacks: Is Accomplice Hayat Boumedienne Now in ISIS Town?

Turkish intelligence lost track of a suspected accomplice of one of last week's Paris attackers to a few hundred yards from an ISIS stronghold.
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ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish intelligence lost track of an accomplice of the Islamist militants behind last week's attacks in Paris just a few hundred yards from an ISIS-controlled town in Syria, sources close to the investigation told NBC News on Tuesday.

Security officials tracked Hayat Boumeddiene's cellphone from the time she entered Turkey on Jan. 2. The signal was lost on Thursday after she went to Akçakale, which is just across the border from militant-dominated Tal Abad, according to a police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A second Turkish source close to the investigation confirmed the account.

Boumedienne's common-law husband Amedy Coulibaly is believed to have killed a French policewoman on Thursday, the day before he killed four hostages at a kosher supermarket. Police have described her as an accomplice in the officer's slaying. Video emerged Sunday purporting to show Coulibaly pledging allegiance to ISIS and defending the attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. A man who looks like Coulibaly is shown exercising, with a gun and giving speeches with an ISIS banner.

Turkey is coming under growing pressure to account for the thousands of ISIS-sympathizers who cross its porous border with Syria to join the extremists that now control swathes of the country. On Monday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu defended his country's policies on state television, and said Turkey had already deported 1,056 foreigners and imposed travel bans on a further 7,833 individuals.

Image: Hayat Boumeddiene and Amedy Coulibaly
Hayat Boumeddiene and Amedy Coulibaly.French Police

IN-DEPTH

— Aziz Akyavas and F. Brinley Bruton