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Amedy Coulibaly one of gunmen behind the worst militant attacks in France for decades, declares his allegiance to Islamic State in this still image taken from video. Photo: Reuters

French supermarket siege suspect had been on US terror watchlist 'a while': media report

US broadcaster CNN says Amedy Coulibaly, held responsible for the deadly seige on a kosher supermarket in Paris last week, had been on a US terror database for a while

A suspect accused of killing four people in a supermarket siege outside Paris last week had been on a US terror watch list, CNN reported on Monday.

Amedy Coulibaly, who is suspected of taking hostages and slaying four Jewish shoppers at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket to the east of the city, had been on a US terror database “for a while,” a law enforcement official told CNN.

The US network said Coulibaly was on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), the government’s central repository that includes about one million names.

Coulibaly probably received help from others, including the two brothers suspected of shooting dead 12 people at French satirical magazine last week.

After the attack US officials said the brothers responsible, Cherif and Said Kouachi, had been on a US terror watch list “for years”.

French police say Coulibaly gunned down a policewoman in the suburb of Montrouge and may have shot a jogger on the outskirts of Paris before the bloody supermarket siege.

In a video posted online on Sunday, a man identifying himself as Coulibaly claims responsibility for the Montrouge attack in the name of Islamic State, and says he “coordinated” his actions with the Kouachi brothers.

Coulibaly and the brothers who carried out the massacre were killed on Friday by police in a dramatic climax to two hostage dramas after three days of terror in the heart of France.

Coulibaly was a repeat criminal offender also convicted for extremist activity.

 

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