French officials jacked up national security Saturday with 12,000 additional police reserves as the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Bastille Day massacre.
The law enforcement boost announced by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve came on top of the 120,000 police and soldiers already on alert after the holiday terror attack that killed 84 and injured 202.
And it followed criticism of the French government for its failure to anticipate and stop the nation’s third major terrorist attack since January 2015.
The ISIS announcement claiming that Mohamed Bouhlel was one of its soldiers came via the Amaq News Agency, the Syrian organization affiliated with the Islamic State.
“The man behind the running-over operation in Nice, France, is a soldier from the Islamic State, and he carried out the attack to answer the calls for targeting the nationals of countries in the coalition that is fighting Islamic State,” said the ISIS statement.
Bouhlel was finally shot by cops after driving an 18-ton refrigeration truck through the horde of humanity gathered Thursday night to watch a beachfront fireworks display.
Cazeneuve said Bouhlel, a 31-year-old ne’er-do-well and delivery driver with a minor rap sheet and a failed marriage, was a recent but fervent ISIS disciple.
“It seems that the attacker got radicalized very rapidly,” he said Saturday.
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