A Third of Nice Truck Attack’s Dead Were Muslim, Group Says
Alissa J. Rubin and Lilia Blaise, New York Times, JULY 19, 2016
When a Tunisian man drove a truck down a crowded street in Nice last week in an attack claimed by the Islamic State, more than one-third of the people he killed were Muslim, the head of a regional Islamic association said on Tuesday.
Kawthar Ben Salem, a spokeswoman for the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes, said that Muslim funerals were being held for at least 30 of those who died during the Bastille Day attack, including men, women and children.
The Paris prosecutor’s office, which handles terrorism investigations, said on Tuesday that all 84 people killed in the attack had been formally identified, meaning that the number of Muslim fatalities may be even higher. The number of people who were wounded was also raised, to 308 people.
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About 120,000 people in the Alpes-Maritimes are from the Maghreb–including Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco–and while the majority are most likely Muslims, some are Jews and Christians, according to rough estimates by various local associations. Nice is also a destination for Muslims from Senegal and other West African countries where French is spoken, and there is also a sizable community of Muslims from the Comoros Islands.
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