The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, in claiming the attack on Saturday (July 16), said he was a “soldier” who had responded to “calls to target nations of coalition states that are fighting (ISIS)”.
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PARIS, July 20 (Reuters) – French lawmakers approved a six-month extension of emergency rule on Wednesday after last week’s truck attack on holiday crowds in Nice, the third deadly assault in just 18 months for which Islamist militants have claimed responsibility.
The spokeswoman of Lenval children’s hospital in Nice, Stephanie Simpson, said the boy is Romanian and had been visiting Nice with his parents, who are missing.
Not only was Bouhlel never deported after a series of violent crimes, he was even able to acquire weapons that he used while committing his massacre.
“It’s a profile that we see out there”, Juy said. Cazeneuve said 59 people were still hospitalized after Thursday’s attack, 29 of them in intensive care, out of 308 people injured overall.
“The guy didn’t observe Ramadan, the minimum to be considered a good Muslim”, he said, referring to the Muslim fasting month that ended late June.
Deveryware did not immediately return a request for comment.
Officials also have at last identified a 7-year-old boy in a coma whose picture had been circulated on social media after no relatives stepped forward immediately after he was injured in the attack.
She said: “I recognised that one or two men were trying to open the door of the driver”.
Another film now in French cinemas, “Moi, Olga” (I, Olga) tells the story of a young woman who crushes people under a truck, reported Le Figaro newspaper. It is a way to project order amid chaos, and to try to assure jittery publics that there is a strategy to end the violence.
A 31-year-old French crane driver who latched onto the Nice attacker’s truck to try and halt his murderous rampage – one of two heroes of the night – told AFP he acted out of “pure instinct”. So I will use strong words: “It will be us or them”.
Similarly, U.S. officials have cited progress in the military campaign as a measure of success in draining ISIL’s power, resources and influence. Top representatives of nations participating in the bombing campaign will meet this week in Washington to assess the progress in the fight.
A lawyer who previously defended Bouhlel has said that his former client “wasn’t very intelligent” and that he “could have been influenced by religion”.
“It was his gun he was looking for”, Alexandre said.
During congressional testimony last week, Nicholas J. Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, gave a sober assessment of the broad campaign against ISIL.
France was wrapping up a three-day period of national mourning after Lahouaiej-Bouhlel zigzagged a 19-tonne truck through a crowd of tourists, locals and families enjoying a fireworks display in the Riviera city of Nice on Bastille Day.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said there was no evidence of Bouhlel’s allegiance to IS but a search of his computer “showed a clear, recent interest for the radical jihadist movement”.
However Mr Cazeneuve said investigators have so far not established any links between Bouhlel and a specific terrorist network.
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And the Socialists have said they will draw the line at some of the opposition’s more controversial demands.
