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FRENCH INVESTIGATORS ARRESTED two more people today as they pieced together details about the motives and preparations of the Tunisian who rammed a truck into a crowd in an IS-claimed attack that killed 84.
Five other people are already in custody, including the estranged wife of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian with no apparent links to extremism who is said to have been radicalised very quickly.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel visited the Nice promenade with his rented truck on the two days before he smashed the vehicle into a crowd of people watching Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city on Thursday night, according to a source close to the probe.
Mangled bodies were left strewn across the storied seafront, including children, in the grisly attack by a man described by those who knew him as a loner with tendencies towards violence and depression.
‘Radicalised very quickly’
While he had a record of being a petty criminal, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had never appeared on the radar of intelligence services for links to radical Islam.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday the father-of-three “seemed to have been radicalised very quickly, from what his friends and family” have told police.
Several people have told police that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel (31) had shown signs of being religious, despite previous reports from those who knew him that he smoked, drank and never went to the mosque, said a source close to the investigation.
People who went to the same gym as Lahouaiej-Bouhlel – where he did salsa dancing and lifted weights – described him as “conceited” and someone who “would flirt with anything that moved”.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killings, saying that one of its “soldiers” carried out the attack “in response to calls to target nations of coalition states that are fighting (IS)”.
Cazeneuve described the massacre as a “a new kind of attack” which highlighted “the extreme difficulty of the anti-terrorism fight”.
“We are now confronted with individuals open to IS’s message to engage in extremely violent actions without necessarily having been trained or having the weapons to carry out a mass (casualty) attack,” he said.
Prime target
France is a prime target of IS, for its role in fighting the group in Iraq and Syria, its cherished secular values, and what the government has admitted is a “social and ethnic apartheid” that alienates its large Muslim community.
Hundreds of French jihadists have gone to fight alongside IS in Iraq and Syria.
Those inspired by IS from afar with no links to jihadist networks create a massive headache for intelligence services.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian noted that IS had recently repeated calls for supporters to “directly attack the French, Americans, wherever they are and by whatever means”.
“Even when Daesh is not the organiser, Daesh breathes life into the terrorist spirit that we are fighting,” he said, using an Arabic name for IS.
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This is a win for Scottish Independence, the middle ground voters hate being told what to do by London. Union of equals my backside
@TheCraftyCulchie: too right. Now the undecided will want out. And back to the EU
@TheCraftyCulchie: Brussels should have told the UK they hold a veto against them leaving the EU
A foreign court says you can’t vote for independence, hahaha give over.
On the contrary, this ruling proves that Scotland is not a voluntary partner within the UK. That card will be valuable to the SNP.
I’ve never been able to enjoy to Flower of Scotland since the voted to remain part of the Union last time. Or Braveheart for that matter. “You can take our lives but you’ll never take our freedom” Aye, unless we don’t want our freedom, in which case you can have that too.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: when they voted last time, David Cameron said the the UK would veto any attempts by an independent Scotland to rejoin the EU. A lot of people may have felt that staying in the EU was worth staying in the UK.
Of course now that Scotland has been dragged out of the EU, the situation is different and a vote now might have a different outcome.
Looking like the Scottish people are chickening out again…if they really wanted self determination and democracy they would have the referendum regardless of Westminster
@Ronan Skelly: I was thinking that. They could organize something a bit like the recent vote in the separatist Ukrainian regions.
@Ronan Skelly: this will be used busy the SNP as propaganda. They were only too well aware that the UK courts would rule against giving Scotland a referendum. Now they’ll have one anyway and demand out of UK. Interesting the parallels between Ukraine and Russia …… Britain(what’s left) and Scotland then
Maybe they need to watch Braveheart a couple of more times to work up the guts to stand up to Westminster
@Ronan Skelly: Shame Braveheart is a Hollywood made up fiction.
Ya can always rely on the English to really make things as easily as ever, not one bit surprised look at the six countries carry on.
The Tories won’t win the next election. I doubt Labour will block a referendum.
@Steven Schulz: They will, Starmer has already ruled out a deal with the SNP. The irony is that having lost Scotland to the SNP, Labour will need to win back every constituency they can that they lost to the Tories over the past decade. These have plenty of voters who are pro-Brexit, anti-devolution, and most of all English. They’re unlikely to vote for a party that would break their beloved so-called United Kingdom.
So if Scottish independence is to come about at all, it’s unlikely to be via a Starmer-led Labour government.
@Steven Schulz: I dunno keir …looks like a Tory in disguise
UK : We want to leave the EU
EU : OK
Scotland: We want to leave the UK
London: Pi550ff
They should be careful of what some of them wish for. They could find themselves in a similar situation to the Republic, 5 million taxpayers, higher taxes, some services work well, some really inefficient & broken. Being part of a greater whole, 64 million, has many advantages. In any case, I think logic will prevail, again!
@Richard Ahern: they were part of a larger EU market of 550 million until they were dragged out of it by the little englanders
@Richard Ahern: Not too many Irish people would choose to join with England, Brexited and run by Eaton Tories. The Irish health system is better than the NHS, Irish people are better off than those in the so called UK. Scotland would do well to follow our path.
@Pat Perill: most people miss this point completely
@Richard Ahern: we have free access to tye eu and actually our economy is much healthier now that any of the UK
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: Despite the best efforts of the Tories, they still have not undermined the NHS to the level of the Irish health system. I agree otherwise though. England is a much more unequal society than here even despite the housing emergency.
What is it the song says?
God help the poor scotch men, they’ll never be free.
Thank God we’re surrounded by water…
@Paul Jude Redmond: You overlook the fact that London retained part of our island, rather than acknowledging the democratic vote of the Irish people.
I’d say there will be an indyref in Wales within the next few years, particularly if they do well in Qatar.
Take the Devil to court and the court sits in Hell
@Des Dalton: British reckon Spain will block Scotland joining the EU because of the Catalan regions.
Interesting situation I think Scotland has alot going for them and would be a successful vibrant economy. They have stagnated and ignored under British rules. They feel a connection with Europe which went back many years , especially with France. I wonder would they be accepted back onto the EU or would Spain block as the British seem to think due to the Catalan regions.
have your say