French Prime Minister Manuel Valls (center-left) arrives with other officials at the Monument du Centenaire to attend a minute of silence on the third day of national mourning to pay tribute to victims of the truck attack along the Promenade des Anglais on Bastille Day that killed scores and injured as many in Nice, France, July 18, 2016.
Advertisement
The Amaq news agency, the official media arm of the terror group, said in the wake of the attacks that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was “one of the soldiers of the Islamic State”.
Molins confirmed that the murderous act was clearly premeditated, as Bouhlel had visited the Promenade des Anglais in his truck in the two days leading up to the attack, taking photos.
“I want to call on all French patriots who wish to do so, to join this operational reserve”, said Cazeneuve of a force which is now made up of 12,000 volunteers aged between 17 and 30.
Dozens of people remain in hospital after the attack.
“That is without a doubt the case in the Nice attack, ‘ said Valls, warning that ‘terrorism will be part of our daily lives for a long time”.
It also emerged that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel took pictures of himself at the wheel of the truck before the attack and shared them by text message.
Sadok Bouhlel told The Associated Press that given Bouhlel’s family problems – he was estranged from his wife and three children – the Algerian extremist “found in Mohamed an easy prey for recruitment”.
Yet elsewhere in the city the grief was still raw as families said farewell to their loved ones and some demanded to know from the authorities how security measures had failed to prevent a man from driving a truck through crowds of revelers in an apparent planned attack that resulted in the worst mass carnage in Nice’s recent history.
Investigators found 11 telephones, cocaine and 2,600 euros ($2,900) in cash at the home of one of the suspects, an Albanian national, according to a security official and the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The Local reported Cazeneuve would say only that Bouhlel experienced radicalization.
Bouhlel is believed to have been radicalised recently, with former neighbours saying they were shocked by his actions.
“Even if these words are hard to say, it’s my duty to do so: There will be other attacks and there will be other innocent people killed”, Valls told French lawmakers. “Quite the opposite. We should be uniting together and defending the country”, said Boubekeur Bekri, adding that “a crime is a crime” regardless of faith. He was killed by police after ramming his truck through crowds after a holiday fireworks display Thursday night.
Their comments came after French newspaper Liberation said Mr Cazeneuve lied about the whereabouts of the national police officers and cars, and accused authorities of lacking transparency.
Many in France are also angry at police and authorities for not preventing the deadly attack, even though France was under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks previous year in Paris.
Advertisement
Neither the Islamic State nor the French government has provided tangible evidence of a link between the group and Bouhlel.
