A probe into the hostage siege in a Paris kosher supermarket has advanced, with the weekend discovery of the possible hide-out of attacker Amedy Coulibaly, who is now a suspect in several strikes around the French capital.
Coulibaly's DNA had already been identified at the sight of Friday's fatal shooting of a police officer in the southern suburb of Montrouge.
A gun used in the supermarket attack has also been tied to bullets that seriously injured a jogger on Wednesday night in Fontenay-aux-Roses, the Parisian suburb Coulibaly resided in.
It's now thought Coulibaly - a repeat criminal offender who'd been convicted for extremist Islamist activity - may be connected to a booby-trapped car that exploded Thursday evening in yet another area in the south of Paris.
Responsibility for that blast was claimed in an internet video posted on Sunday morning before being rapidly removed, attributing the hostage strike, Montrouge police murder, and car explosion to Coulibaly.
The 32-year-old had made a similar declaration in a phone interview with 24-hour French news channel BFMTV during the hostage seige that claimed the lives of four people.
In the video, a man wearing a long white robe and closely resembling Coulibaly declares membership to IS, and claims links to Wednesday's deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo by brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi.
"The brothers of our team, they did Charlie Hebdo," the man in the video says of the attack that left 12 people dead, two days before both Kouachis were killed in an exchange of gun fire with police.
"We managed to synchronise to come out at the same time...if you attack the caliphate we will attack you."
Authorities knew Coulibaly was heavily armed when they discovered two Tokarev pistols, two Kalashnikovs, and sticks of dynamite in the supermarket after a police raid ended the siege.
Investigators now also believe Coulibaly probably possessed an even larger arsenal following the discovery of his presumed hide-out during night-time searches in the southern Paris suburb of Gentilly.
Police are still searching for Coulibaly's partner and possible accomplice, Hayat Boumeddiene, who is thought to be hiding in Syria.
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