5 arrested as Daesh claims responsibility for Nice attack

A Daesh-run media outlet said on Saturday the man who carried out the deadly attack in Nice was a “soldier” of the group.

The Aamaq news agency cited a “security source” as saying the attacker “carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of coalition countries fighting Daesh.”
The statement did not name the attacker, and the language implied that he may have acted independently. 
There is no evidence Daesh was involved in planning the attack which killed 84 people and wounded 200. The driver was identified as Mohamed Bouhlel, a Tunisian deliveryman known to authorities as a petty criminal.
Bouhlel’s father said he had suffered from depression and had “no links” to religion.
“From 2002 to 2004, he had problems that caused a nervous breakdown. He would become angry and he shouted... he would break anything he saw in front of him,” Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej-Bouhlel said in Tunisia.
Neighbours described the attacker, who worked as a delivery man, as a loner who never responded to their greetings.
He and his wife had three children, but she had demanded a divorce after a “violent argument,” one neighbor said.
Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Saturday that five people are in custody following the attack.
The office released no additional information about the arrests; it was unclear who was in custody or why. Messages seeking further detail were not returned.
France’s three days of mourning has just begun, but the horror over the attack hasn’t done anything to tamp down France’s turbulent politics.
In an open letter published on the Nice Matin newspaper’s website, regional council President Christian Estrosi — a member of France’s opposition Republicans — described his country’s current leadership as “incapable,” saying he’d requested that the police presence be reinforced in Nice ahead of the July 14 fireworks display that was attacked but was told there was no need.
France is heading into elections next year, and the deeply unpopular French President Francois Hollande is facing challenges from within his party and from right-wing Republicans and the far-right National Front.
Hollande has canceled his trip to Prague planned for next week.
The Czech presidential office says it was informed about the decision by the French Embassy in Prague.
Hollande was expected to meet Czech leaders on Wednesday. The stop was part of a trip to five European countries meant to discuss the future of the European Union after Britain voted to leave the bloc.

Source: Arab News