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A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 6 March 2019

Prominent French jihadis killed in IS-held area in Syria

By SARAH EL DEEB evacuees, the 38-year-old history — a series of bomb- The Kouachi brothers were assault had been slowed
Associated Press said she does not want to ings and shootings in Paris killed by police in a sepa- the previous week to allow
OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, Syria go back to France, which in November 2015 that rate raid. All told, their at- thousands of civilians, in-
(AP) — A prominent French is part of the U.S.-led co- killed 130 people. tacks left 17 people dead. cluding IS family members,
militant who joined the Is- to be evacuated from the
lamic State group, Jean- tiny pocket of territory. As
Michel Clain, was killed many as 10,000 people
in a mortar strike over the who had been squeezed
weekend as he struggled into the eroding patch
with wounds suffered in an of land, are estimated to
earlier airstrike that killed his have streamed out — an
jihadi brother, his wife said enormous number that
Tuesday after emerging stunned the SDF.
from the group’s last pock- Asked about the situation
et of land in Syria. inside Baghouz, a Russian
The wife, who identified woman who came out
herself as Dorothee Ma- with her three children re-
quere, said another French sponded in broken Arabic:
woman who had joined “Fear.” She said her hus-
IS, Hayat Boumeddiene, band had died earlier.
was killed in another strike Another woman in her mid-
last week that allegedly 20s, who identified herself
hit a safe house known as as Reem from the central
the “French House,” where Syrian province of Hama,
many French nationals said she was waiting for
were staying. Boumeddi- her husband to come out
ene had been wanted by of an IS-controlled jail. He
French police as a suspect- has been there for months
ed accomplice in a 2015 People sit in a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants, after killing an IS member
attack in the Paris region. outside Baghouz, Syria, Monday, March 4, 2019. Associated Press in retaliation “for his baby
Maquere was one of daughter being killed in an
hundreds of people who alition fighting IS. “I want Jean-Michel held on for a Investigators then focused airstrike,” she said.
over the past two days France to leave me alone. little over a week after the on finding Boumeddiene, “I haven’t seen him since
streamed out of Baghouz, They killed my husband, airstrike. Maquere said she who was believed to be and don’t know where he
the last village held by the my children. ... I want noth- tried to treat him, but his pregnant at the time. But is,” Reem said, adding that
Islamic State group, un- ing from them. They did al- feet were torn apart and she had already fled to Syr- she asked repeatedly for
der stepped-up assault ready enough harm. I want one side of his body was ia. Soon after, IS published his whereabouts before
the past four days by U.S.- them to leave me with my crushed. “He suffered,” she what it said was an inter- she eventually decided to
backed forces. The lat- children,” she said, cradling said. “There was no hospi- view with her in French and leave.
est wave of evacuations her two-week old son, one tal.” He was killed on Sun- English, in which she called The evacuees said the
brings the final defeat of of her five surviving chil- day when a mortar struck, on women to be patient bombing has been intense
IS by the Kurdish-led Syrian dren. causing him a direct head and make life easier for in recent days. One woman
Democratic Forces one Her account, if verified, wound, she said. their husbands. said she saw a man hit by
step closer — a milestone in closes a chapter on a num- Boumeddiene was killed in Maquere said Boumeddi- a missile as she was fleeing
the devastating four-year ber of French militants who a separate airstrike in Bag- ene had “started a new life” from one tent to another.
campaign to defeat the were connected to attacks houz about a week ago, and remarried. She said she Earlier on Tuesday, SDF
group’s so-called “caliph- in past years in and around Maquere said. Two other didn’t have any children. spokesman Mustafa Bali
ate” that once covered Paris and who then made French citizens who left The French-Moroccan tweeted that about 3,000
a vast territory straddling their way to IS’s “caliphate” Baghouz on Monday — a evacuee said Boumeddi- people came out of Bag-
both Syria and Iraq. and finally, as it crumbled, French-Belgian who identi- ene had told her she had houz on Monday. They left
Maquere, who is also to this tiny village on the Eu- fied herself as Zohra and no idea about plans for the through a humanitarian
French, told the Associated phrates River near the Iraqi a French-Moroccan,who 2015 attack in Paris or her corridor established by the
Press that the situation in- border. refused to be identified husband’s plans. Kurdish-led forces for those
side Baghouz was a “horror Her husband, Jean-Michel said Boumeddiene was be- Boumeddiene’s evolution who want to leave or sur-
film,” saying there is a “mas- Clain, who Maquere said lieved to have been stay- was documented in photos render.
sacre” inside, with constant wrote religious anthems for ing in the French House widely distributed in French Since Feb. 20, more than
shooting. People had to lay IS, was seriously wounded and confirmed it was struck media after her disap- 10,000 people have left the
flat to avoid the crossfire, in a Feb. 20 airstrike in Bag- last week. pearance, from vacation IS pocket and black-robed
she said, adding that there houz that killed his brother, Boumeddiene was the wid- pictures of her in a bikini women with children in the
were “no more homes, we Fabien, one of Europe’s ow of Amedy Coulibaly, a to images of her holding backs of trucks could be
live underground in tunnels most wanted IS members. Frenchman who attacked a crossbow while wearing seen passing through the
and tents.” She said her The U.S.-led coalition an- a kosher supermarket in an all-encompassing black corridor and heading into
7-year-old daughter was nounced Fabien’s death Paris in January 2015, days niqab. The last known im- the desert. They were then
killed and her other daugh- several days after the strike. after two other militants — age of her was from airport whisked off to a camp for
ter wounded by an explo- The two brothers joined IS brothers Cherif and Said surveillance video in Istan- displaced people to the
sion two weeks ago. Two together and Fabien went Kouachi— gunned down bul, going through passport north, while suspected IS
other sons were killed ear- on to become the group’s the staff of the weekly sa- control. fighters were moved to de-
lier in a mortar attack and voice in France. Fabien’s tirical magazine Charlie Tuesday’s exodus came tention facilities. It was un-
Syrian government fire. voice was on an IS record- Hebdo. Coulibaly killed four three days after U.S.- clear how many IS militants
Speaking at a desert re- ing claiming responsibility people in the supermar- backed forces resumed and civilians remained in-
ception area where SDF for the worst terrorist vio- ket before French police their push on IS militants side, but the number is now
fighters were screening the lence in France’s modern stormed in and killed him. holed up in Baghouz. The likely in the hundreds.q