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ISIS Praises “Palestinian Tactic” of Truck Attack in Nice

by TheTower.org Staff |

ISIS supporters have praised the terrorist who used his truck to kill 84 people in Nice, France last week, hailing the Palestinians for developing the car ramming method.

“Killing by ramming using civilian cars and trucks is an idea born from the Maqdisi [Palestinian] mind, which has an innovative nature of thinking up jihad tactics,” one ISIS supporter commented on the social network Telegram. “Yesterday they taught us [about] the explosive vest, and many plans for street fighting, and today they taught us this tactic. May Allah bless Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem, and may Allah bless all of the Levant… Oh Aqsa, we are coming.”

Vehicular attacks have become a hallmark of Palestinian terrorism. According to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 46 car ramming attacks have been carried out by Palestinian terrorists in Israel since last September. One particularly high-profile incident in October 2015 saw a Palestinian terrorist ram his car into a group of people waiting at a bus-stop, then proceed to exit the vehicle and hack one of those wounded — Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky — to death. (The terrorist involved was later called a “martyr” by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who met with the killer’s family.)

Over the last few years, terrorist organizations like ISIS and al-Qaeda have called on followers to carry out more vehicular attacks. In a September 2014 message, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani urged, “If you cannot [detonate] a bomb or [fire] a bullet, arrange to meet alone with a French or an American infidel and … run him over with your car.”

In addition, ISIS supporters claimed that the attack served as retaliation for French involvement in airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria. One ISIS supporter commented, “Our hearts are … filled with joy of a level we have yet to experience! How can we not rejoice when we see the organs of the infidel Crusaders, who launched a war on Islam, strewn about here and there?! How can we not rejoice after being sad when they bombed Muslim lands in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in cold blood?! Do we not deserve joy?!”

Many other supporters of ISIS weighed in online, promising further attacks in France and the West. A banner on another pro-ISIS Telegram channel gloated in French and Arabic in a message to French president Francois Hollande: “Allah protects His believers, Oh Hollande… And here you are humiliated by His abilities and the abilities of His soldiers. In spite of you, we will humiliate you, oh pig of France.” Another banner threatened, “Oh Frenchmen, just as you kill us, so you will be killed. We have promised you that we will move the battlefield to the heart of your home. Then you will taste our wrath.”

Attacks like those in Nice and Israel force policymakers to take a new view of urban spaces. Former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Tuesday that countries are looking to Israel for counter-terrorism tactics against car rammings, as well as hijackings and other terror attacks.

[Photo: John Hutchison / YouTube]

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