ISIS has claimed responsibility for the truck attack committed by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the 31-year old Tunisian man who plowed his vehicle into the crowd and killed 84 people in Nice on Thursday, the national Bastille Day holiday.
“The person who carried out the operation in Nice, France, to run down people was a soldier of the Islamic State, who carried out the operation in response to calls to target states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State,” said A’ Maq, the press agency supporting ISIS.
Earlier today, Bayan, a radio station linked to the radical group, also stated that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had employed a “new, special operation using a truck” to perpetrate the mass killing.
In the wake of the attack, the Paris prosecutor’s office launched an investigation to determine if the crime was an act of terrorism. Six people have been arrested, including Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s estranged wife, according to Agence France-Presse.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who lived in Nice and had three children, was killed by police after driving his truck more than a mile along the Promenade des Anglais following the fireworks in celebration of Bastille Day. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel wasn’t known by France’s intelligence services, had never been arrested or questioned for any terrorist activity, but had been arrested for misdemeanor crimes, according to the AFP.
