The massacre in Nice, France on Bastille Day by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, which left at least 84 dead and dozens wounded, involved a tactic that was encouraged by the Islamic State in September 2014: using a vehicle as a weapon to murder “unbelievers.”
The Daily Caller made the connection with the attack and the instructions of ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al Adnani, who urged fellow jihadists in 2014 to get creative in the ways they slaughtered innocent people.
“Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him,” said al Adnani.
Adnani enjoined followers to target any and all westerners, whether American, Australian, Canadian, or European, but singled out “the spiteful and filthy French.”
“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way, however it may be,” he said.
Just as al Adnani instructed, Bouhlel used whatever means he had available, using a lorry to murder dozens of innocent people celebrating the French national holiday on the promenade before getting out of the truck and opening fire. After killing and wounding over a hundred people, Bouhlel was killed by anti-terror police, reportedly crying “Allahu Akbar” in his final moments. In the vehicle, authorities found more grenades and guns. The French authorities are investigating the incident as a terror attack.