- The Washington Times - Friday, July 15, 2016

The Nice truck-terrorist has been identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, according to French media outlets.

Before his name was released, both Agence France-Presse and the local Nice Matin newspaper had identified the driver was a 31-year-old Nice resident. The Nice Matin later identified the attacker as Bouhlel.

French authorities found identity papers in the truck and they matched the driver, who was killed in a gunfight with police after he’d killed at least 80 people by plowing the vehicle into crowds of Bastille Day revelers in the southern French resort city.

Bouhlel held dual French and Tunisian citizenship, which strongly implies he was a French-born Muslim.

The North African nation is a former French colony and its citizens, who are 99 percent Sunni Muslim, have had immigration preferences into France for decades.

Major French cities have sprouted enclaves of immigrants and their descendants from Tunisia and its similarly situated neighbors Morocco and Algeria. Some of those “banlieues” are, according to counterterrorism analysts, “no-go” areas for local police and a breeding ground for jihadism.

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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