Mohamed Salmene Lahouaiej-Bouhlel (; ''Muḥammad Laḥwiyyij-Būhlāl''; 3 January 1985 – 14 July 2016) was a Tunisian terrorist
living in France who carried out the
2016 Nice truck attack, in which he
drove a truck into a crowd celebrating
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...
on the
Promenade des Anglais
The ''Promenade des Anglais'' (; Niçard: ''Camin dei Anglés''; meaning "English Walkway") is a wikt:en:promenade, promenade along the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Nice, France. It extends from the Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, airp ...
in
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, killing 86 people and injuring another 434.
Immediately after the attack, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by responding French police officers.
Life
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was born in
M'saken
M'saken ( ''Msākan''; also spelled ''Masakin'', ''Msaken'') is a town in north-eastern Tunisia, close to Sousse.
Etymology
The origin of the word comes from "Msaken" masken (plural masken) meaning "habitat", "house" or "dwelling".
This refer ...
, Tunisia, a small town about outside the coastal city of
Sousse
Sousse or Soussa ( ar, سوسة, ; Berber:''Susa'') is a city in Tunisia, capital of the Sousse Governorate. Located south of the capital Tunis, the city has 271,428 inhabitants (2014). Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf ...
. According to police reports, he had a French
residency permit and moved to Nice in 2005, where he worked as a delivery-truck driver.
He trained in
martial arts
Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...
, frequented
salsa
Salsa most often refers to:
* Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments
* Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music
* Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music
Salsa or SALSA may also refer to:
...
night clubs, and had an "unbridled sex life". Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was married, and had three children, but was in the process of divorce. He was reported to have had financial difficulties and to have worked as a driver, acquiring a truck permit less than a year before the attack.
In January 2016, he fell asleep at the wheel of a van, and was subsequently fired.
His parents are divorced.
His father, who lives in the family's native town, told an international news agency that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel suffered from depression, drank alcohol and was a drug user: "From 2002 to 2004, he had problems that caused a
nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
. He would become angry and he shouted ... he would break anything he saw in front of him." Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's sister Rabeb said that his family handed over documents to the police showing that he had been seeing
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
s for several years. His father and his younger brother insisted that the attack "had nothing to do with religion", stating that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel did not pray and never observed the holy month of
Ramadan
, type = islam
, longtype = Religious
, image = Ramadan montage.jpg
, caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
. His brother claimed that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel did not know people, never sent his family presents, and never said hello.
He
married a French-Tunisian cousin, living in Nice, with whom he had three children. According to his wife's lawyer, he was repeatedly reported for
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
and the couple separated.
''
The Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...
'' described Lahouaiej-Bouhlel as "mentally unstable", with a tumultuous personal life, which included drug use and consumption of violent online content. Police examination of his phone revealed what
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
described as a "string" of relationships
with both men and women, including an affair with a 73-year-old man.
In the days before the attack, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel let his beard grow and told people "the meaning of this beard is religious." French authorities stated that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel showed a passion for religion only recently; "Mohamed only started visiting a mosque in April," a witness stated. French investigator François Molins stated "Bouhlel had expressed support for the
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
."
Molins also found that from 1 July, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel made more or less daily Internet searches for verses of the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
and "
nasheed
A nasheed (Arabic: singular ', plural ', meaning: "chants") is a work of vocal music, partially coincident with hymns, that is either sung ''a cappella'' or with instruments, according to a particular style or tradition within Islam.
Nasheed ...
s". He also researched the Islamic holiday of
Eid al-Fitr
, nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast
, observedby = Muslims
, type = Islamic
, longtype = Islamic
, significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan
, dat ...
. Investigators found photos of dead bodies and images linked to radical Islamism on his computer, including the flag of the
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
; the cover of an issue of the French satirical magazine ''
Charlie Hebdo
''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
'', which had been
attacked by gunmen in January 2015; and photos of
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
and Algerian jihadist
Mokhtar Belmokhtar
Mokhtar Belmokhtar (; ar, مختار بلمختار;pronounced in Algerian Arabic as born 1 June 1972), also known as Khalid Abu al-Abbas, The One-Eyed, Nelson, and The Uncatchable, is an Algerian leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former mil ...
. He also told friends he did not understand why IS could not hold territory and showed them a video of a beheading on his mobile phone. In response to their shock, he said he was "used to it". In addition, he had searched the Internet for the terms "terrible mortal accidents", "horrible mortal accidents" and "shocking video, not for sensitive souls"
and consulted news articles on fatal accidents,[ including on 1 January 2016 an article]['Strategisch, nicht spontan']
''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
'', 22 July 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2016[ or a photo][ ] from a local newspaper about a car incident[ with the caption: "He deliberately crashes onto the terrace of a restaurant".][
According to media reports, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was known to police for five prior criminal offenses, notably regarding armed violence. On 27 January 2016 he was put on probation for attacking a motorist with a wooden ]pallet
A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. A pallet is the structural foundat ...
after a traffic accident. He was convicted on 24 March 2016 and given a six-month suspended sentence on charges of violence with a weapon. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was last arrested less than a month before the attack after a traffic accident in which he had been asleep at the wheel, and he remained subject to judicial supervision. He was, however, not registered as a national security risk ( fiche "S") with French authorities.
Reports say that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel often visited Tunisia, saying the last time he did so was eight months prior to the attack.
Money transfer
Just days before the attack, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel sent €97,000 – €100,000 to his family in Tunisia.
Suspected affiliations
The newspaper ''Nice-Matin
''Nice-Matin'' (French for "Nice-Morning") is a regional daily French newspaper. The paper covers Nice and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in south-eastern France.
History and profile
''Nice-Matin'' was created in 1944. The paper was join ...
'' published an interview with an eyewitness who recounted hearing " ''Allahu Akbar''" ("God is greatest") during the attack from his balcony, with similar reports being circulated by other news organizations and on social media. Officials have not confirmed these reports, while the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
has characterised the claim that this can be heard on a video as a false social media rumour.
However, a preliminary investigation by French officials has not connected Lahouaiej-Bouhlel to any international terror groups.
(ISIL), called Lahouaiej-Bouhlel "one of the soldiers of Islamic State." It cited a "security source" which said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel "carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State".
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was not known by Tunisian authorities to have been involved in any terrorism activities on Tunisian soil.
His name was not in the French database of suspected Islamic militants.
According to a cousin of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's wife, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was not a religious person and did not attend a
.
'' noted that his lack of religious piety is typical for the French and Belgian subjects involved in terrorist rampages earlier in 2016.
French Prime Minister
proclaimed that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was "probably linked to radical Islam in one way or another", and put the attack in the context of a
both outside and within France. This allegation was initially cautioned by the French Interior Minister
, who said "We have an individual who was not known to intelligence services for activities linked to radical Islam" and who could not confirm Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's motives were linked to radical jihadism.
radicalized himself very quickly," early investigations had found.
Bouhlel's uncle, Sadok Bouhlel, stated his nephew was indoctrinated about two weeks prior to the attack by an Algerian member of the Islamic State group in Nice. According to authorities, Bouhlel watched many ISIS beheading videos and researched in depth
.
After the attack, newspapers reported, on the authority of unspecified investigators, that evidence found on Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's cellphone showed he may have been in contact
. However, an intelligence source cautioned this "could just be a coincidence, given the neighbourhood where he lived. Everyone knows everyone there. He seems to have known people who knew Omar Diaby", a known local Islamist believed to be linked with
.