The Bastille Day truck attack in Nice – occurring when France was already under a heightened state of emergency – could further unnerve a country already traumatized by past extremist attacks and persuade some anxious citizens simply to stay at home, some experts say. The French investigation found that the person behind the attack was 31-year-old resident of Nice of Tunisian origin Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. He also visited the scene of the attack days before the carnage and took a selfie at the wheel of the truck. We also think it’s only fair that Adelaide has a say in how much media exposure she is comfortable with. Every six months we’re going to mourn for more dead?
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But when Prime Minister Manuel Valls emerged from the crowd to sign a condolence book, the crowd booed, called him a murderer, and yelled at him to resign.
The investigation so far shows Lahouaiej Bouhlel sought to raise money for the attack at the beginning of this month.
Sadok Bouhlel said his nephew’s family problems – he was estranged from his wife and three children – meant the Algerian extremist “found in Mohamed an easy prey for recruitment”. His apparent radicalization has puzzled investigators as well as friends and family. Bouhlel’s uncle claims his nephew was indoctrinated about two weeks ago by an Algerian member of IS in Nice.
The French government is defending its efforts to fight Islamic State extremists overseas and at home, announcing new airstrikes against their strongholds in the past two days. The Nice attack came eight months after IS jihadists killed 130 people across Paris, and 18 months after three days of terror at the Charlie Hebdo weekly and a Jewish supermarket killed 17.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve hit back Monday, listing a series of laws and extra police forces created under Hollande’s presidency “to face a threat that France was not prepared for” when he took over from Sarkozy in 2012.
After a special security meeting, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French forces in the USA -led coalition struck IS targets again overnight and on Saturday.
The president of the Nice region, Christian Estrosi, said the truck was loaded with weapons and grenades, and the driver had opened fire on the crowd.
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While there is no evidence at this stage that Lahouaiej Bouhlel actually had ties with the group calling itself Islamic State – which claimed responsibility for the attack – a search of his computer and mobile phone showed a clear and recent interest for Islamist militancy and violent imagery, Molins said. But authorities believe he must have been radicalized very quickly, as he had not shown a passion for religion until recently. “The attack there may have more of an impact than the Paris attacks because people may now be thinking, ‘where can I go to relax and be safe?'” He said that the pattern of repeated attacks could eventually prompt people to change their behaviour, if they fear the government is unable to protect them. Numerous dead and injured were children watching a fireworks display with their families.
