ISIS Claims Responsibility For Nice Terror Attack, 5 People Arrested Including Terrorist’s Wife

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the gruesome terror attack in Nice, France that took the lives of 84 innocent people and injured over 200 more. The Aamaq news agency, an Islamic State-run media outlet, proudly took credit for the heinous truck rampage by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel that fractured the French coastal city during Bastille Day celebrations.

The statement, which was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, said the following:

“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.”

Despite taking credit for the disgusting assault at the Promenade des Anglais, there is no actual proof linking the Islamic State with the 31-year-old man who used a 20-ton truck to plow down hundreds of people this week. ISIL may just be insinuating that their wicked propaganda inspired Bouhlel.

There is the suspicious activity of Bouhlel sending his family large sums of money just days before his grisly Bastille Day onslaught. Apparently, Bouhlel persuaded friends to smuggle the money back to his family in their hometown of Msaken, Tunisia. His brother, Jaber Bouhlel told the Daily Mail that he sent them $93,000 days before the attack.

“He used to send us small sums of money regularly like most Tunisians working abroad. But then he sent us all that money, it was fortune, Jaber said. “He sent the money illegally. He gave cash to people he knew who were returning to our village and asked them to give it to the family.”

Jaber insists, “My brother is not a terrorist.” His father also said that his son was not a terrorist, but he was mentally ill.

“He’d get angry and shout and broke everything in front of him,” the elder Boulel said. “He was violent and very ill. We took him to the doctor and he was put on drugs.” Adding that from 2002 to 2004 he had problems that led to a nervous breakdown.

Those who knew Bouhlel described him as a “weird loner” who “became depressed” when his wife left him.

Bouhlel was not on a terrorist watch list.

The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said that Bouhlel “appears to have become radicalized very quickly.” A neighbor said that Mohamed only started visiting a mosque in April.

There are reports that Bouhlel’s behavior was very non-Muslim. Walid Hamou, a cousin of Bouhlel’s wife Hajer Khalfallah, told the Daily Mail, “Bouhlel was not religious. He did not go to the mosque, he did not pray, he did not observe Ramadan. He drank alcohol, ate pork and took drugs. This is all forbidden under Islam.”

Bouhlel hit his wife, whom he had three children with, and was in the process of getting a divorce.

Five people were arrested in connection with the Bastille Day massacre, including Bouhlel’s wife and members of his “close entourage.”

France’s interior minister announced that the country would be tightening security, including calling up 12,000 police reserves in response to the terrorist attack.

[WSJ]