THE female suicide bomber who blew herself up in the dramatic Paris siege was an “extrovert” who drank alcohol and was nicknamed the “cowgirl” because of her love of hats.
Hasna Ait Boulahacen, 26, is thought to be the cousin of suspected mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was the other person killed during the dramatic Saint Denis raid in which eight people were arrested.
She is also believed to be the leader of a terror cell that was about to attack France’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
Ait Boulahcen, who was born in France in 1989 and was a French-Moroccan citizen, was already on security services’ watch list. She is listed as the manager of Beko Construction based in Epinay Sur Seine before it went into liquidation in 2014 and is thought to have visited KFC and appeared “relaxed” before the siege which terrorised the neighbourhood.
French police have raided the home of Ait Boulahcen’s mother, who claims her daughter had only been radicalised in recent months. She had previously said she wanted to join Islamic State and fight in Iraq or Syria.
Her friends and neighbours have described her as bubbly and outgoing, but a bit “clueless”, The Telegraph reports.
“It’s brainwashing,” her mother told AFP.
Her brother, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the young woman — whose body has not formally been identified by French authorities — had suddenly become radicalised about six months ago and began wearing a full-faced veil or niqab.
“She was unstable, she wasn’t looking to study religion, I have never seen her open a Koran,” he told AFP.
It’s unclear exactly what happened inside the third floor apartment, which was the site of an intense gun battle in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Witnesses and neighbours report seeing a woman with “long blonde hair” firing a Kalashnikov from the window, while police fired back from rooftops outside the building.
During a lull in the shooting, witness Christian, 20, told Le Parisien he heard a woman shouting “help, help, help me!”
“The police asked her to identify herself, and to show herself. She held her hands up but she didn’t reveal her face,” he said. “They asked her twice ‘where is your friend?’ She replied: ‘He is not my friend’.”
It is believed she may have been trying to lure officers into a trap before detonating her explosive vest.
When she failed to follow their orders to keep her hands out of sight the police told her they were going to shoot.
“The shooting resumed. Police were firing from the roof of the building opposite. Suddenly there was an enormous explosion. It was probably the woman who blew herself up,” Christian said, noting there were still pieces of the suicide bomber lying in the street.
French anti-terror commander Jean-Michel Fauvergue, 56, said the raid was the most violent of his career and 5000 bullets were fired. He said saw a woman’s head “fly through a window” and land on the other side the street after a loud explosion inside the apartment.
Neighbour Christian, 20, The Times he heard shooting and an “enormous explosion” that rattled windows in the block less than a mile from the Stade de France.
“It was probably the woman who was blowing herself up. The windows shattered, a lot of objects from the flat were blown into street, bits of human flesh as well. They are in the street. You can see a bit of head, skin ribs,” he said.
Another witness Lofti, 50, said he heard police talking to a woman with “long blonde hair. They told her not to lower her arms, to keep her arms up in the air, then there was a massive explosion”.
French authorities have confirmed IS terrorist Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in the siege. Picture: AFP.Source:AFP
The blast was from a mix of nails and ballbearings contained within the suicide vest that released a hail of “shipyard confetti” killing Hasna Ait Boulahacen and police dog Diesel. The moment marked a new frontier in the war against terror — the first time there has been a female suicide bomber in Western Europe.
Quillam Foundation Senior Researcher Nikita Malik said the exceptional situation plays into the Islamic State narrative which dictates women only play a primary role in combat when they are directly threatened.
“I don’t think she was actively sent to commit a suicide attack because it would have happened earlier,” she told news.com.au. “She was more there for strategy … and this happened because of police invading that flat.”
“What would have been the justification is the woman feeling very threatened by French police. What comes remains to be seen. Is it that this martyrdom will encourage women to take a [more] primary based role?”
Eight other suspects were arrested in the raid that saw police discover an “arsenal” of guns and plans for an attack on Charles de Gaulle Airport and the city business district.
Forensic officers at the building where an arsenal of guns was found. Picture: AP Photo/Christophe Ena.Source:AP
Ms Malik said the high-profile suicide could have the potential to be used by the group for propaganda purposes, as seen with Hayat Boumeddiene, the wife of Amédy Coulibaly, who fled to Syria in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
She has since been interviewed for Islamic State magazine Dabiq, which has also started a section aimed at female readers.
“It’s very insightful that she was able to escape and return back to Syria really quickly. Not long after that she appeared in the Islamic State video holding a gun, it was almost like she was used as an incentivising mechanism.”
“What I find interesting about that is that it has started to use her as a figurehead … It will be fascinating to see [whether that will happen to Hasna Ait Boulahacen],” Ms Malik said.
The author of the Quillam Foundation report released today on Caliphettes, Women and the appeal of the Islamic State, said the targeting of women by the group is something we can expect to see more of as the war against terror continues.
In the report, Ms Malik and Haras Rafiq argue it’s not enough to think of those who travel to join the groups as “jihadi brides”, but rather as women who feel socially isolated, oppressed and vulnerable in Western society and are drawn to the concept through the idea of empowerment, deliverance, participation and peity.
“Just like their male counterparts, they are lured in by the promise of being part of something bigger than themselves, something that is, allegedly, divinely mandated,” they write.
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