New arrest in Paris attacks linked to apartment raid

PARIS (AP) — A woman was arrested Tuesday in a Paris suburb for suspected links to an intermediary to the only man charged in connection the Paris attacks, according to two officials close to the investigation.

The officials, who requested anonymity to talk about the ongoing investigation, told The Associated Press that the woman, whose name wasn’t revealed, is the partner of the intermediary.

The intermediary, 25, whose name hasn’t been made public, had been arrested earlier on Tuesday in his home in Malakoff, south of Paris, by counterterrorism police. A few hours later, police went with the suspect to search another apartment in Saint-Denis and arrested his partner who was there. The man and his partner have been taken into custody west of Paris.

The intermediary was in contact with Jawad Bendaoud, who was handed preliminary charges for providing housing to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected planner of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. The intermediary, who has been known by the police only for drug trafficking so far, was also in contact with Abaaoud’s cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen.

His partner was arrested in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, where a police assault killed Abaaoud, his female cousin and a third man on Nov. 18.