- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Why is France Under Attack Again?

© REUTERS / Amit DaveA girl holds up a placard during a prayer meet to show solidarity with the victims of the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, at a school in Ahmedabad, India, July 15, 2016.
A girl holds up a placard during a prayer meet to show solidarity with the victims of the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, at a school in Ahmedabad, India, July 15, 2016. - Sputnik International
Subscribe
Thursday night’s truck attack in Nice was already the fifth to have hit France in the past eighteen months and the second deadliest after last November’s attack on the Bataclan concert hall that left 153 people dead. Several leading Russian experts explained why France has been chosen as a prime target for such terrorist attacks.

“Chilled out”

Alexei Filatov, Vice President of the international antiterrorist association Alpha, said that the 31-year-old truck driver who killed 84 people during Bastille Day celebrations at the Nice waterfront on July 14 accomplished what his terrorist brethren had failed to do during Euro-2016.

“The terrorists apparently planned something like this during Euro-2016, but they didn’t manage to pull it off. I don’t think this is a case of a security flop on the part of the French because the terrorists keep changing their tactic all the time,” Filatov told RT.

European Union headquarters is reflected in the windows of the EU Council building prior to an EU summit in Brussels on Tuesday, June 28, 2016. - Sputnik International
France Puts Anti-Terror Efforts on Agenda of EU FMs Talks After Nice Attack
He added that France has found itself in a situation Russia had  during the mid-1990s when terrorist attacks were happening in various parts of the country and the security services were hard put figuring out just when and where another such attack might happen.

“We need to go where these terrorists are being trained and our Russian security agencies have  done this before and with good results,” he added.

Dmitry Gorovtsov, a member of the State Duma’s security and anti-corruption committee, said that the French have simply loosened up after Euro-2016 even though they had been tipped off about possible attacks.

“During the final game of Euro-2016 on July 10 security was extremely tight, that’s why nothing happened then, but in this case it looks like they sort of ‘chilled out’ and let their guard down,” Gorovtsov said.

Why France?

When asked why the terrorists had chosen France as a target of their attacks, Alexei Filatov brought up the millions of migrants from North Africa who now live in France but have never become part of French society.

“In a country with so many migrants like France, figuring out the perpetrators of a terrorist attack is almost a mission impossible. This is essentially a caste society where migrants from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco usually have low-paid jobs and can become instrumental in such attacks,” he noted.

Filatov also said that this could have been an act of revenge for France’s role in antiterrorist operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

“The civilized countries are trying to impose their rules on others by exporting revolutions to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. The terrorists respond with attacks on their enemy’s soil. They want Daesh to be treated as an equal,” he emphasized.

Dmitry Gorovtsov said that the French had failed to learn from previous such attacks.

“After last year’s attacks in Paris President Hollande came to Moscow and President Putin suggested setting up an international antiterrorist front. Unfortunately our French colleagues ignored this, apparently due to pressure from Washington.”

Gorovtsov added that after the tragic events in Nice, the French would keep tabs on foreigners coming to the country, even from the Schengen area.

The Nice attacker identified

Meanwhile, the driver of the truck in the Nice terror attack has been identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a French citizen of Tunisian descent who lived and worked in Nice. He was identified by fingerprints after his identification card was found in the truck.

According to local media reports, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had told police, guarding the promenade that he was delivering ice cream.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, is reportedly the father of a three-year-old child, the media reported. Earlier in the day, police raided his house and arrested his ex-wife. According to the authorities, he had previously been held on  a number of misdemeanor charges, but his potential radicalization had gone unnoticed by police.

On Thursday evening, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove his truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on a Nice promenade killing 84 revelers and wounding dozens more before being shot dead by police.

What next?

France has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the Nice attack. The Promenade des Anglais remains closed off and all public events in the city have been canceled. President François Hollande described Thursday’s carnage as a terrorist attack and promised to ramp up the war on terror, including in Syria and Iraq.

The nationwide state of emergency has been extended for another three months.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала