IS called for car attacks
Transforming a vehicle into a simple but deadly weapon of terror -- as happened to such bloody effect in Nice on Thursday -- is a tactic well known to intelligence agencies.
A truck smashed into revellers celebrating France's Bastille Day, killing at least 84 and injuring scores as its ploughed two kilometres through the crowd.
This is not the first time in recent years that someone has deliberately driven a truck into pedestrians on a French street. But the scale, speed and death toll from this apparent attack in Nice are unprecedented.
It follows a call by so-called Islamic State (IS) spokesman Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani some months ago for IS followers to do exactly what this truck driver did.
In 2014, he called on IS supporters to use vehicles to commit terror attacks, if they didn't have access to more traditional weapons.
"If you cannot (detonate) a bomb or (fire) a bullet, arrange to meet alone with a French or an American infidel and bash his skull in with a rock, slaughter him with a knife, run him over with your car, throw him off a cliff, strangle him, or inject him with poison," he said.
Al-Adnani said there was no need to "consult anyone" as killing all unbelievers is fair game: "It is immaterial if the infidel is a combatant or a civilian... They are both enemies. The blood of both is permitted."
Experts say, this, and other calls for attacks in Europe, are partly in response to the significant losses being experienced by IS to the shrinking territory it controls in Syria and Iraq.
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