French woman indicted for terrorist cell links

A young French woman, suspected of having ties with a regional branch of Al Qaeda based in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was indicted for conspiracy to prepare terrorist acts, Xinhua reported Friday citing local media.

Citing its own source, the local broadcaster Europe 1 said the 21-year-old woman told police that she sent e-mails to AQAP offering it targets of attack but she did not receive any answer.

The young woman was arrested Tuesday morning at her apartment in Belleville district of northern Paris.

She had also been arrested by the Central Directorate of Homeland Intelligence or DCRI in February as part of an investigation over a jihadist cell, which recruited insurgents to go to Indonesia.

France has reinforced its security measures since January, when its forces intervened in Mali to help local authorities to repel Al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels who had seized control of the north of the former French colony.

A total of seven French nationals are now in hands of Al Qaeda-linked groups in the Sahel region of Africa.

A major terrorist bomb attack on Paris subway in 1995 had killed eight people and injured 200 others.