Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Terrorist wasn’t a lone wolf THE CHURCH
Police fear Nice killer is part of plot for attacks across Europe
THE Nice church killer is feared to be part of a plot to plant “sleepers” with no previous terror record across Europe to commit atrocities.
There were fears 21-year-old Brahim Aoussaoui may not have been a lone wolf as a friend was arrested on suspicion of helping him plan the outrage.
Anti-terror officers are investigating whether Aoussaoui was radicalised in his native Tunisia before travelling to France where he killed three worshippers in Thursday’s sickening knife attack.
Armed police detained a 47-year-old man late on Thursday night and charged him with being an accomplice.
The man, believed to have been in close contact with Aoussaoui on Wednesday, was suspected of providing the Tunisian with one of the two phones he was found with after he was shot by police and taken to hospital.
A previously unknown terror group called Al Mehdi of Southern Tunisia has claimed responsibility for his attack, reports in North Africa said.
Aoussaoui left Tunisia last month, landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa and was transferred to the mainland. Reports in Italy yesterday said he left Tunisia with “the worst intentions”.
A Europol report in 2017 said Islamic State exploited the flow of refugees and migrants to commit atrocities, which was a feature of the 2015 Paris attacks.
Now the authorities fear this is on the rise again, bringing another wave of terrorists hell-bent on causing carnage across the continent.
Yesterday more information on Aoussaoui’s three victims emerged.
Brazilian Simone Barreto Silva, 44, had lived in France for 30 years and had three children. She was a trained cook and a care worker who looked after the elderly.
Her last words to paramedics were: “Tell my children that I love them.”
Church warden Vincent Loques
would have turned 55 yesterday. The other victim, a 60-year-old female worshipper, has not been identified.
Outside the Notre Dame basilica yesterday, Frederic Le Fevre tied three red heartshaped balloons to the railings and said: “That’s with love from the world.”
Aoussaoui’s mother Gamra said she did not know why he moved to Nice. She said: “I said to him you don’t know the French language, you don’t know anyone there, you’re going to live alone, why did you go there?”
Other family members said Aoussaoui began praying regularly shortly after he was convicted of “violence” and knife crime in 2016. The car and bike mechanic had been a drug user and a drinker but suddenly stopped. He saved for two years to fund his
crossing. His brother, who spoke to him this week, said: “He told me he wanted to spend the night in front of the cathedral. He sent me a photo of the building.”
The brother, who did not want to be named, spoke from the family’s home in the desert town of Bouhajla.
Telling of his shock, he said: “What we saw in the images is him, our boy.”
Aoussaoui was said to have spent much of his time on his phone during a routine coronavirus quarantine on arrival in Italy.
One friend said: “He said he wanted to go to France where he had relatives.” Aoussaoui was not entitled to asylum and should have been sent back to North Africa, but a series of security lapses enabled him to walk free.
You don’t know the language or anyone there, why did you go? MUM GAMRA ASKED HIM WHY HE WENT TO FRANCE