French President Francois Hollande announced new help Friday for Iraq’s military in fighting Islamic State extremists, trying to show his government is taking action amid criticism that there weren’t enough police protecting Nice’s Bastille Day celebration when a truck attack last week killed 84 people.
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IS has claimed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian national, as one of its “soldiers” but given no proof of his affiliation.
The detained suspects are four men – identified as Franco-Tunisians Ramzi A. and Mohamed Oualid G., a Tunisian named Chokri C., and an Albanian named Artan – and a woman of dual French-Albanian nationality identified as Enkeldja, Molins said. But Molins said information from Bouhlel’s phone showed searches and photos that suggested he could have been preparing an attack as far back as 2015.
Hollande increased military support for Iraq in its fight against IS extremists as a result of the Nice attack, and French lawmakers extended a state of emergency in place since the deadly November 13 Islamic State attacks on Paris.
Investigators also found a message in Bouhlel’s phone from Oualid on January 10 2015 – roughly a year after attacks on the Charlie Hebdo weekly which spawned the hashtag “I am Charlie” in support of those killed. “I am happy they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job”.
Stressing the global nature of the fight against IS, Hollande said, “Even if was France that was attacked July 14, it’s the world that was targeted”.
French officials rushed to defend the government’s security measures Thursday even as the country’s interior minister acknowledged national police were not, as he had claimed before, stationed at the entrance to closed-off Nice boulevard during the Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people. Bouhlel’s phone also contained a photograph of Bastille Day fireworks from a year ago and another zooming in on crowds at a concert three days later.
President Francois Hollande said the conclusions of that investigation will be known next week. French authorities have been looking for possible accomplices to Bouhlel.
“I took the decision as part of the anti-Daesh coalition to make weapons available to Iraqi forces”, Hollande said after a meeting of key ministers and security chiefs, using another name for IS.
“There’s no room for polemics, there’s only room for transparency, ” he said.
French Le Monde reports that Bouhlel reportedly sent at 5pm on July 14 an audio message to Chokri C, 37, born in Sousse in Tunisia.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, although there is no evidence linking Bouhlel to the group.
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The incident which happened on France’s National Day.
