A picture of the truck used in the attack. AFP.
A truck plowed into a crowd of revelers celebrating Bastille Day in Nice France, killing more then 70 people. Washington Post. More then 100 people were injured. The driver attacked on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice targeting people both with his truck and with small arms before he was shot and killed by the police. The truck was carrying multiple weapons and was reported to have explosives as well. The attack has been called premeditated and clearly planned. The identity and affiliation of the attacker has not been released so far. ISIS supporters were celebrating the attack on social media. The attack is also consistent with other ISIS attacks.
Live Updates from The Guardian and RT.com.
My Comment:
Yet another major terrorist attack. And this one was horrible. I won't post them here but I have seen multiple images and video from the scene. It was awful with dead bodies and injured people everywhere. This is one of the worst terror attacks I have ever seen, and I have seen far to many already.
And it happened on one of the most important days on the French calendar, Bastille Day. Bastille Day is a hugely important day for the people of France and the equivalent of the 4th of July in the United States. Indeed, the attack occurred while the people of Nice were watching fireworks. This is obviously an attack on France itself and not just a run of the mill terror attack. The propaganda value of this attack is huge, and is a major blow to the people of France, a country that is already reeling from several other massive terror attacks.
The attack was a fairly effective one as well. The tactics used were novel and managed to kill a massive number of people in a short amount of time. Though vehicles have been used to ram people before in terrorist attacks, this is the first time that I am aware of that someone used a truck this way. With everyone so densely packed due to the celebration it is not a surprise that many people died. Still, even with that being said it is amazing to me that they were able to kill so many with such a basic attack. And if the reports are true that he was shooting at the same time, it just goes to show that even an unconventional attack can turn into a mass shooting in a blink of an eye.
I have seen on Twitter that ISIS has taken credit for this attack. That is not surprising since this is a classic example of what ISIS has been doing lately. Instead of massive attacks like the ones al-Qaeda has used, this attack was targeted at a soft target using whatever the terrorist had at hand. ISIS is currently giving an master level class to the world on how to pull off major terrorist attacks. I'm afraid that even after ISIS is defeated, if ISIS is defeated, the tactics and strategies they have come up with will be used by other groups in the future.
ISIS long ago realized that a guy or two with small arms, explosives and the willingness to die can accomplish as much or more then a huge conspiracy targeting landmarks. And the pace of these attacks has been withering. After 9/11 happened, there weren't any major terror attacks in Europe for awhile and when they did happen it wasn't on the near weekly basis they are now. These attacks are a lot harder to disrupt or discover before they pull off the assault, so there is only so much authorities can do to prevent them.
France has become a major hub for terrorism and ISIS has targeted it extensively. Though the Charlie Hebdo attacks were mostly al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS participated and they were responsible for the Paris attacks. There were many other minor attacks as well, and the attack on Brussels in Belgium was closely related to the attacks in France.
The attacks in France are causing a dangerous amount of instability in the country to the point where I wouldn't be all that surprised if there was a major transition in terms of government. It's even possible that there will be a civil war if the number of attacks continue. If the French people think that their government isn't useful enough in stopping these attacks they might just decide that they no longer need their government.
As for ISIS, a lot of people say that these attacks are in response to the string of massive defeats in Iraq, Syria and Libya. They have lost a large part of the territory they have held and the theory is that they are pulling off these attacks to regain credibility. I don't think that is really true since they were committing these attacks long before they were getting defeated. I think that ISIS just has a need to strike wherever they can and this attack is just the latest one.
Though Ramadan is finally over I am not surprised by this attack. The pace of major assaults by ISIS has increased lately and in the past month or two, we have seen attacks in America, Turkey, Iraq, Bangladesh and now France. ISIS truly is a global organization and they are showing yet again that they can hit anywhere...
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