Daesh claim is studied as Paris makes more arrests

French authorities detained two more people on Sunday in the investigation into the Bastille Day truck attack on the Mediterranean city of Nice that killed at least 84 people, as authorities try to determine whether the slain attacker was a religious extremist or just a very angry man.

A man and a woman were detained Sunday morning in Nice, according to an official with the Paris prosecutor’s office, which oversees national terrorism investigations. The official provided no details on their identities, and said five people detained previously remain in custody. Neighbors told The Associated Press the attacker’s estranged wife was among them.
Investigators are hunting for possible accomplices to truck driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who had lived in Nice for years. He was killed by police after ramming his truck through crowds on Nice’s famed seafront after a holiday fireworks display Thursday night.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it’s unclear whether Bouhlel had concrete links to the group. The IS said he was following their calls to target citizens of countries fighting the extremists.
Neighbors described the attacker as volatile, prone to drinking and womanizing and in the process of getting a divorce. His father, in Tunisia, said his son did not pray or fast for Ramadan, the holy month.
But French authorities believe that may have changed. Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the Journal du dimanche newspaper that authorities “now know that the killer radicalized very quickly.”
“(IS) is encouraging individuals unknown to our services to stage attacks ... that is without a doubt the case in the Nice attack,” he said Sunday. A special church service was being held at a Nice cathedral Sunday in honor of the victims. Touraine, the health minister, urged any survivors to seek counselling offered by the government.
Nice’s famous Promenade des Anglais, the site of the slaughter, is gradually reopening and becoming a shrine to the dead. Memorials have been set up on the westbound lane of the road where victims were struck, some still identifiable by bloodstains.
Joggers, bikers and sunbathers on Sunday cruised down the pedestrian walkway along the glistening Mediterranean Sea, where well-wishers placed flowers, French flags, stuffed animals and candles.

Source: Arab News