Woman charged over failed Paris attack

A French judge on Saturday charged 29-year-old Ornella G., a mother of three, with association with a terrorist group and attempted murder for her alleged role in an aborted terror attack in Paris last week.

Investigators said her fingerprints were found in an abandoned car containing gas cylinders and diesel that was found near Notre Dame Cathedral last Sunday.

Ornella G. was arrested on Tuesday in southern France with her boyfriend, who was later released. She was previously suspected of planning to go to Syria.

Ornella G. is among several women arrested in recent days in what authorities say is a female terror network with alleged ties to other attacks in France inspired by the so-called "Islamic State" (IS).

Three other women were detained on Thursday.

Security officials said they found a written pledge proving that one of the women was linked to the terror group. The suspect, a 19-year-old known as Ines Madani, was shot in the leg by police on Thursday evening after she stabbed a police officer with a knife.

Investigators also learned that another accomplice in the case, called Sarah H., was the fiancee of Larossi Abballa, the man who killed a police officer and his partner in a Paris suburb in June. He was shot dead during a police raid. Investigations showed Abballa had sworn allegiance to IS three weeks before killing the couple.

Sarah H. then became engaged to Adel Kermiche, who along with another man killed an elderly priest near the city of Rouen in July. He was also shot dead by security forces.

'Terrorist cell was dismantled'

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said at a news conference that the women were inspired by IS.

"In the last few days and hours, a terrorist cell was dismantled, composed of young women totally receptive to the deadly Daesh ideology," Molins said, referring to IS by another name.

France has been in a state of emergency amid a spate of terror attacks linked to IS, including coordinated strikes in Paris last November which left 130 dead and an attack in Nice in July, which killed 84 people.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday that 293 people have been arrested this year for "links to terrorist networks."

"We are involved in an extremely intense, round-the-clock mission to protect the French public, and we are getting results," Cazeneuve said.

cw/cmk (AFP, AP)