Islamic State claims responsibility for Nice truck attack

4) Amaq claim of #BrusselsAttacks didn’t cite”Insider source” as it did with the #NiceAttack claim pic.twitter.com/C5jJtMiCJH

— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) July 16, 2016

“He carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State,” the statement said.

French authorities said they were checking the claim. The 31-year old Tunisian driver of the truck drove at a Bastille day crowd on the waterfront of the French riveria city on Thursday night. Authorities had been working to find out whether his motives were indeed connected to radical Islam.

He was not known to French intelligence sources for radicalisation.

The truck zigzagged along the city’s seafront Promenade des Anglais as a fireworks display marking the French national day ended.

It careered into families and friends listening to an orchestra or strolling above the Mediterranean beach towards the century-old grand Hotel Negresco.