In a online statement made by the Islamic State‘s media agency Amaq, ISIS claimed their responsibility for their alleged role in the deadly terror attack in Nice, France committed on the country’s revered Bastille Day.
It was Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel who would plow a rented 20-ton truck through throngs of civilians Thursday [July 14] on the city’s beachfront Promenade des Anglais, killing at least 80 individuals, including at least 10 children, and injuring over 200 others in the nation’s third mass-casualty assault to occur in just 18 months.
“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,” read a statement on a social media account that is linked with the Amaq News Agency.
Despite these claims, it is still unclear on whether or not Bouhlel carried out the vicious attack as a lone wolf sympathizer for the terror group, or if he had been in direct contact with them.
According to French authorities, five people have been detained, including Bouhlel’s ex-wife, while the others are four men, including one who is believed to have spoken to the attacker by phone just minutes before he initiated his attack on the Promenade des Anglais.
“We have an enemy who is going to continue to strike all the people, all the countries who have freedom as a fundamental value,” said French President Francois Hollande.
