Italian police arrest man suspected of helping 2016 Nice attacker

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Italian police arrest man suspected of helping 2016 Nice attacker
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Apr 22, 2021 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
This image grabbed from a video handout on April 22, 2021 by the Italian State Police shows officers escorting a man, identified only as Endri E.
This image grabbed from a video handout on April 22, 2021 by the Italian State Police shows officers escorting a man, identified only as Endri E. PHOTO BY HANDOUT/POLIZIA DI STATO /AFP via Getty Images
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ROME — Italian police said on Thursday they had arrested an Albanian man suspected of supplying weapons to Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who killed 86 people in July 2016 by driving a truck through a seafront crowd in the French city of Nice.

Police said Endri Elezi, 28, was seized in the late hours of Wednesday in Sparanise, a town close to Caserta, in southern Italy. France had issued a European arrest warrant for him.

“We believe he has been in Italy at least since the start of the year. … We are investigating possible connections between him and other people living in that area or elsewhere in the country,” said anti-terrorism agency chief Diego Parente.

Bouhlel, a Tunisian citizen, was shot dead by police after he carried out the attack at the Promenade des Anglais on July 14, 2016, France’s national Bastille day holiday.


Italy has carried out several operations against suspected supporters of Islamist militants in recent years.

Last March, an Algerian man was arrested in the southern city of Bari on evidence he had provided support to the perpetrators of coordinated attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015.

In 2016, the Tunisian Anis Amri was killed by police in Milan a few days after he carried out a deadly truck attack at the Berlin Christmas market in 2016.

“The arrest of Endri Elezi … confirms the great skills of the state police’s counter-terrorism investigators and the effectiveness of the international cooperation,” Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said in a statement.

Italian police arrest man suspected of helping 2016 Nice attacker

ROME — Italian police said on Thursday they had arrested an Albanian man suspected of supplying weapons to Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who killed 86 people in July 2…

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Attacker fatally stabs police employee near Paris, PM calls it terrorist attack
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Gonzalo Fuentes and Antony Paone
Publishing date:Apr 23, 2021 • 7 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
Police officers secure the area where an attacker stabbed a female police administrative worker, in Rambouillet, France, April 23, 2021.
Police officers secure the area where an attacker stabbed a female police administrative worker, in Rambouillet, France, April 23, 2021. PHOTO BY GONZALO FUENTES /REUTERS
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RAMBOUILLET — A man fatally stabbed a police administrative worker as she walked into a police station in a Paris commuter town on Friday, and President Emmanuel Macron said France had again been the victim of a terror attack.

The attacker stabbed the woman in the throat, two security sources said.

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Macron identified the victim as Stephanie and said the nation stood by her family’s side.

“We will stop at nothing in our resolute fight against Islamist terrorism,” Macron tweeted.


The attacker was shot dead by police officers.

France’s anti-terror prosecutor said he was leading the investigation because the assailant had previously scouted out the site and because of what he said during the attack.

A judicial source close to the investigation said the attacker had shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Greatest.”

The attacker was a Tunisian national residing in France on legitimate papers, the security officials said. BFM TV reported that he had lived in France illegally before obtaining a residency card, which was due to expire later this year.

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He was not previously known to France’s intelligence agencies, a third security source added.

“France has lost one of its everyday heroines in a barbaric gesture of infinite cowardice,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said outside the police station, located on a residential street in the town of Rambouillet.


France has seen several attacks by Islamist militants or Islamist-inspired individuals in recent years that have killed about 250 people.

Friday’s attack came six months after a Chechen teenager beheaded a school teacher in Conflans, another Paris satellite town.

Macron has expressed increasing concern over radicalization – often non-violent – within Muslim communities, warning that Islamist separatism is threatening to take control in some areas.

He has called for an “enlightened Islam” in France, saying Islam and radical Islamism must not be conflated.

Tackling religious extremism, domestic security and notions of French identity are likely to be important issues in next year’s presidential election.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right and the strongest challenger to Macron’s re-election bid, said the police needed more protection.

“Support the police, expel illegal immigrants, eradicate Islamism,” she tweeted.

Attacker fatally stabs police employee near Paris, PM calls it terrorist attack

RAMBOUILLET — A man fatally stabbed a police administrative worker as she walked into a police station in a Paris commuter town on Friday, and President Emmanuel Ma…

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