Attacker in Nice was 'radicalized rapidly,' French interior minister says [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Attacker in Nice was 'radicalized rapidly,' French interior minister says

Global July 16, 2016

The man who used a 20-ton truck to plow down hundreds of people in Nice this week, killing 84, somehow became radicalized very quickly and hadn't even yet shown up on any anti-terrorist intelligence radar, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Saturday.

"It seems that the attacker got radicalized very rapidly," Cazeneuve said of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31.

The minister said Bouhlel had not been known to the intelligence services previously, and he noted that authorities now face a new scenario with individuals who are becoming very sensitive to the messages of ISIS.

Earlier Saturday, a statement from ISIS' media group, Amaq Agency, said that an ISIS "soldier" carried out the attack in Nice.

People left flowers, candles and other tributes in Nice, France, on Saturday in memory of those killed in Thursday's terror attack in the coastal city.

The statement, which was posted by ISIS supporters, said a security source told the agency that "the person who carried out the run over in Nice, France, is one of the Islamic State soldiers and carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of the coalition which is fighting the Islamic State."

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel's ID Card

The particular wording of the statement -- not claiming the attack as an outright act of ISIS, but noting that the attacker was responding to calls to act against the coalition -- mirrors ISIS' language in statements following the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, when it claimed gunman Omar Mateen as a "soldier." Forty-nine people died in the June 12 massacre.

French prosecutor François Molins said Friday the attack in Nice fits with calls that "terrorist organizations regularly give out on their videos and elsewhere."

New developments in the investigation

As the investigation continued, French authorities were questioning five people Saturday. Among them was Bouhlel's ex-wife, who was taken into custody Friday, the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office said. The other four are men.

Bouhlel, a resident of Nice, was born in Tunisia but had a permit to live and work in France.

Walking Nice's trail of terror where so much blood was spilled

While Cazeneuve said no evidence had yet been found to tie Bouhlel to jihadism, a source close to the investigation told CNN that a phone number belonging to Bouhlel cropped up in a counterterrorism investigation into an associate of Omar Diaby, a 41-year-old Senagalese jihadi who lived in Nice before traveling to Syria.

Diaby, who calls himself Omar Omsen, commands a French jihadi batallion in Syria affiliated with Jabhat al Nusra, al Qaeda's branch in Syria. The source said investigators made the link after cross referencing case files after the attack in Nice. Investigators are looking into the nature of the links between Bouhlel and Diaby's associate, but they cannot rule out that the two were possibly just part of the same social circle.

French counter terrorism officials have established that a series of Youtube videos Diaby recorded in Nice in 2012 before departing for Syria helped motivate a significant number of French extremists to travel to fight in Syria. In May, Diaby revealed in a Skype interview with a French journalist that he had faked his own death in August 2015 to get medical treatment outside Syria.

LIVE: Follow rolling updates from Nice terror attack

Hollande warns of continued strikes

French President François Hollande, addressing his country following its third major terrorist attack in 18 months, described the assault as an "unspeakable act."

"We have an enemy who is going to continue to strike all the people, all the countries who have freedom as a fundamental value," Hollande said.

Bastille Day terror: Harrowing images of truck attack in Nice

Photos: Bastille Day terror: Harrowing images of truck attack in Nice

A photo from the Twitter account of a reporter for CNN affiliate France 2 shows witnesses being interviewed inside the Hotel Negresco after the attack. According to Alban Mikoczy, these people are not injured.

Wounded people are evacuated from the scene where the truck drove into the crowd during the Bastille Day celebrations.

Armed French police move people away from the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in the aftermath of Thursday's attack.

Medical workers attend to an injured woman.

Police security forces deployed in the center of Nice.

Tony Molina, a U.S. police officer on vacation in Nice, witnessed the terrible scene from his hotel room. He told CNN he thought he heard between 30 and 40 gunshots. "I saw the truck right below us and it had already driven down the boardwalk for a half a mile."

BFM-TV, a CNN affiliate in France, reported that police shot at the truck to try to stop it.

Rescue workers move a victim from the scene.

Soldiers, police officers and firefighters walk among bodies covered with blue sheets on the seafront Promenade des Anglais.

Police seal off the area around the scene. A witness said at first it seemed like an accident, but then it became obvious it was a deliberate act.

"I wasn't sure what to do, in that situation. No one knew what was going on. We just knew we had to run for our lives," said Paul Delane, an American who witnessed the attack.

French President François Hollande said the country would now extend its state of emergency for three months.

A doll is seen at the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais.

Baby strollers are seen on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, on Friday, July 15. A 31-year-old native of Tunisia and resident of Nice drove into a crowd during the southern French city's Bastille Day celebrations around 10:45 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, killing at least 84 people and leaving around 202 injured.

A woman cries, asking for her son, as she walks near the scene of the attack.

A forensics team inspects the scene of the attack.

A man looks at the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais.

Forensics investigators examine a truck at the scene of the attack.

graphic warning - multiple images

Bodies of victims covered by sheets remained at the scene of the attack early Friday.

A man sits next to the body of a victim following the attack.

Authorities confirmed that the driver of the truck was killed by police.

The truck plowed into a crowd leaving a Bastille Day fireworks display in the French resort city of Nice. One witness, an American who was about 15 feet from the truck, said the driver accelerated and pointed his tractor-trailer into the crowd, mowing people over.

A man lies near a covered body at the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

Emergency teams assist wounded people at the scene.

Wounded people are evacuated from the scene where the truck drove into the crowd during the Bastille Day celebrations.

Armed French police move people away from the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in the aftermath of Thursday's attack.

Medical workers attend to an injured woman.

Police security forces deployed in the center of Nice.

BFM-TV, a CNN affiliate in France, reported that police shot at the truck to try to stop it.

Rescue workers move a victim from the scene.

Soldiers, police officers and firefighters walk among bodies covered with blue sheets on the seafront Promenade des Anglais.

Police seal off the area around the scene. A witness said at first it seemed like an accident, but then it became obvious it was a deliberate act.

"I wasn't sure what to do, in that situation. No one knew what was going on. We just knew we had to run for our lives," said Paul Delane, an American who witnessed the attack.

French President François Hollande said the country would now extend its state of emergency for three months.

A doll is seen at the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais.

A woman cries, asking for her son, as she walks near the scene of the attack.

A forensics team inspects the scene of the attack.

A man looks at the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais.

Forensics investigators examine a truck at the scene of the attack.

graphic warning - multiple images

Bodies of victims covered by sheets remained at the scene of the attack early Friday.

A man sits next to the body of a victim following the attack.

Authorities confirmed that the driver of the truck was killed by police.

A man lies near a covered body at the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

Emergency teams assist wounded people at the scene.

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Bouhlel was shot to death by police after he barreled down the crowded Promenade des Anglais for almost a mile, crushing and hitting people who had gathered to watch the Bastille Day fireworks. More than 200 people were injured, and at least 55 of them were in critical condition Friday.

Bouhlel was identified by fingerprints after his identification card was found in the truck, authorities said.

He was known to police because of allegations of threats, violence and thefts over the past six years, and he was given a suspended six-month prison sentence this year after being convicted of violence with a weapon, authorities said.

Bouhlel's father, who lives in Tunisia, said his son showed signs of mental health issues -- having had multiple nervous breakdowns and volatile behavior, said CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

Nice truck attack: Full coverage

Despite his criminal record, Bouhlel was not on the radar for any kind of terror threat. The man was "entirely unknown by the intelligence services, whether nationally or locally," Molins said.

"He had never been the subject of any kind of file or indication of radicalization."

'There are dead everywhere'

As the seaside resort town tried to regain a semblance of normalcy Saturday, harrowing new details emerged about Thursday night's tragedy. One young victim, Kimberley Torres, described how someone tried to throw her out of the way of the truck -- but she was still hit by it.

"I tried to roll myself into a ball, so the people wouldn't crush me, but I was still hit in the stomach and leg," she said.

The 16-year-old, who lives in Nice and is studying for an international baccalaureate, is now recovering from her injuries at the Fondation Lenval

News Courtesy: www.cnn.com