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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Attack in Nice, France France Blames ISIS for Terrorist Attack in Nice
(about 4 hours later)
NICE, France — The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Saturday for the Bastille Day attack on the seaside promenade in Nice, France, which killed 84 people and injured 202. NICE, France — The Islamic State claimed on Saturday that the man who attacked the seaside city of Nice, France, was one of the group’s “soldiers.” France’s defense minister promptly blamed the terrorist network for inspiring the assault, while its top law enforcement official said the attacker, who was not previously known to intelligence agencies, may have “radicalized himself very quickly.”
“The man behind the running-over operation in Nice, France, is a soldier from the Islamic State, and he carried out the attack to answer the calls for targeting the nationals of countries in the coalition that is fighting Islamic State,” said a statement from a social media account linked to the Amaq News Agency, which bills itself as the terrorist network’s semiofficial news outlet. The attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, carried out the assault on Thursday evening using a 19-ton refrigerated truck and an automatic pistol. France, traumatized by three major terrorist assaults in 19 months, began three days of national mourning on Saturday. The death toll from the Nice attack remained at 84, but the number of injured rose to 303, of whom 121 were in hospitals, 26 of them in intensive care.
Also on Saturday, the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist communications, said that the Islamic State had featured its claim of responsibility in a news bulletin on its radio station, Al Bayan, and that it “threatened that ‘crusader states’ are not safe.” The Islamic State had kept silent on the Nice attack until Saturday morning, when it declared, in a bulletin issued in Arabic and in English on its Amaq News Agency channel:
The claim must be greeted with caution. The Islamic State has at times asserted responsibility for attacks carried out in its name, even when there was no indication that the terrorist network had any direct role in planning or carrying out the violence. “Executor of the deadly operation in Nice, France, was a soldier of the Islamic State. He executed the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations, which fight the Islamic State.”
The man identified as the attacker in Nice — Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a native of Tunisia — had a history of petty crime going back to 2010. He received a six-month suspended sentence this year for assaulting a motorist, he was not on the radar of French intelligence agencies and he seemed more like a surly misfit — who beat his wife, until she threw him out — than a terrorist. A short while later, the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist communications, said the Islamic State had also put its claim of responsibility in a news bulletin on its radio station, Al Bayan, and that it “threatened that ‘crusader states’ are not safe.”
However, on Saturday morning, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said it appeared that Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel became an extremist very quickly. The claim must be greeted with caution. The Islamic State has in the past asserted responsibility for attacks carried out in its name, even when there was no sign of its direct involvement. For example, the group asserted responsibility after a husband and wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., in December and after a man killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., last month. The group has intentionally blurred the line between operations that are planned and carried out by its core fighters and those carried out by sympathizers inspired to commit violence only from a distance.
“We are faced with an attack of a new kind,” Mr. Cazeneuve said after a cabinet meeting at the Élysée Palace. “The individual who committed this absolutely despicable, unspeakable crime was not known by the intelligence services, as he had not stood out over the past years — whether through court convictions or through his activity — for support of radical Islamist ideology.” But France’s defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, blamed the Islamic State for the attacks. He noted that its spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, has called on the group’s followers to attack Westerners in retaliation for strikes by the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. France is part of that coalition.
“I remind you that Daesh’s ideologue, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, has for several weeks repeated calls to attack directly, even individually, Frenchmen, in particular, or Americans, wherever they are, by any means necessary,” Mr. Le Drian said after a cabinet meeting at the Élysée Palace, using an Arabic name for the Islamic State. The “minds of those like the truck driver” are susceptible to such calls for violence, he said.
“It is murder, and Daesh’s claim of responsibility comes later, as has happened in other recent events,” Mr. Le Drian added. “Even if Daesh doesn’t do the organizing, Daesh inspires this terrorist spirit, against which we are fighting.”
Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a native of Tunisia, had a history of petty crime going back to 2010. He received a six-month suspended sentence this year for assaulting a motorist, but was not on the radar of French intelligence agencies. Indeed, he seemed more like a surly misfit — he beat his wife, until she threw him out — than a prospective terrorist.
But on Saturday morning, the country’s top law enforcement official, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, said it appeared that Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel had become an extremist very quickly.
“We are faced with an attack of a new kind,” Mr. Cazeneuve said. “The individual who committed this absolutely despicable, unspeakable crime was not known by the intelligence services, as he had not stood out over the past years — whether through court convictions or through his activity — for support of radical Islamist ideology.”
Mr. Cazeneuve added: “It seems that he radicalized himself very quickly. In any case, these are the first elements that have come to light through the testimony of his acquaintances.”Mr. Cazeneuve added: “It seems that he radicalized himself very quickly. In any case, these are the first elements that have come to light through the testimony of his acquaintances.”
On Friday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told France 2 television that the attacker “is a terrorist probably linked to radical Islam one way or another,” but he did not offer specifics. In Msaken, Tunisia, the attacker’s father, Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej Bouhlel, told Agence France-Presse on Friday night that his son had depression, but that he “had almost no links to religion,” and that “he didn’t pray, he didn’t fast, he drank alcohol, and even used drugs.”
In Msaken, Tunisia, the man’s father, Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej Bouhlel, told Agence France-Presse on Friday night that his son had depression, but that he “had almost no links to religion,” and that “he didn’t pray, he didn’t fast, he drank alcohol, and even used drugs.”
The elder Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel said of his son, “From 2002 to 2004, he had problems that caused a nervous breakdown.”The elder Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel said of his son, “From 2002 to 2004, he had problems that caused a nervous breakdown.”
“He would become angry, and he shouted,” he said, adding, “He would break anything he saw in front of him.”“He would become angry, and he shouted,” he said, adding, “He would break anything he saw in front of him.”
The son was prescribed medication for emotional problems, the elder Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel said, adding that his son was “always alone, always depressed” and often silent. The father said he and his family had almost no contact with his son since left for France. The son appears to have arrived in Nice around 2005 and to have returned to Tunisia for a sister’s wedding in 2012.The son was prescribed medication for emotional problems, the elder Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel said, adding that his son was “always alone, always depressed” and often silent. The father said he and his family had almost no contact with his son since left for France. The son appears to have arrived in Nice around 2005 and to have returned to Tunisia for a sister’s wedding in 2012.
The French government has so far denied any security lapses in the prelude to the attack, despite criticism from officials about the government’s intelligence-gathering and other law-enforcement abilities after two major terrorist attacks, in January and in November of last year, that killed 147 people. However, The Huffington Post quoted Rabab Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a sister of the attacker, as saying the brother “did not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, but he also did not pray and never entered a mosque in his life.” She added: “He was just not stable psychologically and mentally. His wife and her mother both complained about his violent behavior toward her.”
On Saturday morning, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that the French police had held four people acquainted with Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel. His estranged wife has also been held for questioning. On Saturday morning, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that four people acquainted with Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel were in police custody, along with his estranged wife.
Stéphane Le Foll, the chief government spokesman, batted away criticism of the handling of security in Nice before the attack, much of which has come from right-leaning parties. Since Thursday evening, several officials — particularly from right-leaning parties opposed to President François Hollande’s Socialist government — have criticized the government’s handling of intelligence gathering and law enforcement, especially in the aftermath of attacks in January and in November of last year that killed a total of 147 people.
“Those who, after a tragedy like this one, come and say that they would have had the solution, that with them, nothing would have happened, I leave them to their total lack of responsibility,” Mr. Le Foll told Europe 1 radio Saturday morning. Christian Estrosi, the president of the region encompassing Nice, wrote in an open letter on Saturday that he had asked for additional security for Bastille Day, but was rebuffed because there was no specific threat.
“When you are talking after the fact, you can always find solutions,” he added. “Why, while I have for the past two years never ceased to ask the government for new means of fighting terrorism, means to arm our national and municipal police, regulatory means, legislative means, have I never received an answer?” Mr. Estrosi said.
Mr. Le Foll said that security in Nice on the night of the attack was as tight as it was during the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, which ended on July 10. He said that 185 national police officers and gendarmes were assigned to the Bastille Day celebration and fireworks, in addition to the local police and soldiers. But Stéphane Le Foll, the chief government spokesman, batted away criticism. “Those who, after a tragedy like this one, come and say that they would have had the solution, that with them, nothing would have happened, I leave them to their total lack of responsibility,” Mr. Le Foll told Europe 1 radio Saturday morning. “When you are talking after the fact, you can always find solutions.”
Mr. Le Foll suggested it was hard to prevent attacks like the one in Nice. “How did this horrible act occur on this evening?” he asked. “Because a man decided to rent a truck four days before, all alone, and that he decided to kill people on the 14th of July.” Mr. Le Foll said that security in Nice on the night of the attack was as tight as it was during the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, which ended on July 10, and which was targeted by several plots that the authorities thwarted, according to Mr. Cazeneuve.
Saturday was the first of three days of national mourning in France. On the Promenade des Anglais, the celebrated seaside boulevard where Mr. Lahouaiej Bouhlel carried out his attack using a 19-ton refrigerated truck and an automatic pistol, local officials observed a moment of silence. The police prefecture for the Alpes-Maritimes department, where Nice is, said that security measures in place on the night of the attack included random searches, the addition of plainclothes officers, and the blockage of access points.
People returned to the beach, although in far smaller numbers than in the days before the attack, but signs of a shaken city were still in evidence. The truck used in the attack “forced its way through, by driving onto the sidewalk,” bypassing a checkpoint, where police vehicles blocked the entrance to the promenade, the prefecture said, adding that 64 national and 42 municipal police officers had worked together to secure the area, along with 20 soldiers.
Many streets were still blocked, parents were still searching for missing children, and hospital staff members puzzled over how to help find the parents of infants who had been thrown to the ground by the truck’s impact. “How did this horrible act occur on this evening?” Mr. Le Foll said. “Because a man decided to rent a truck four days before, all alone, and that he decided to kill people on the 14th of July.”
Mejdi Chemakhi, an emergency room nurse-radiologist at Pasteur Hospital in Nice, described parents and children who had lost one another. For him and other emergency nurses and doctors, the trauma has not stopped since Thursday night, when the attack began. Mr. Cazeneuve said the French state, or national government, had worked with the city of Nice to protect the Bastille Day celebrations, as well as events like the Cannes film festival, which takes place about 25 miles west of Nice, and the annual Nice carnival.
“There were people with traces of the tires on their crushed bodies,” Dr. Chemakhi said as he took a short break between patients. “There were a lot of people with multiple fractures in their pelvis. It was awful.” “If one of the authorities — the state or the city — had at one point considered that the level of security was not adequate, the state or the city could have decided to ban the July 14 festivities, which neither did,” Mr. Cazeneuve said.
People returned to the beach on Saturday, although in far smaller numbers than in the days before the attack, but signs of a shaken city were still in evidence. Local officials observed a moment of silence at a makeshift memorial on the Promenade des Anglais, the site of the carnage.
The promenade reopened to vehicular traffic on Saturday afternoon; it had been closed to traffic for the Bastille Day fireworks celebration and then, after the terrorist attack, it remained closed as it was turned, in effect, into a 1.5-mile crime scene.
Many streets were still blocked, parents were still searching for missing children, and hospital staff members who have been dealing with scores of victims continued to treat dozens of patients, including many children, who had sustained life-threatening injuries.