World leaders react with horror to truck attack in France

  World leaders are expressing dismay, sadness and solidarity with France over the attack carried out by a man who drove truck into crowds of people celebrating France’s national day in Nice, killing at least 84 people.

US President Barack Obama condemned what he said “appears to be a horrific terrorist attack” in Nice.Secretary of State John Kerry called it a “horrendous attack in Nice. ... I was proud to stand alongside French leaders earlier on Friday at Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, and the United States will continue to stand firmly with the French people during this time of tragedy.” 

Both presidential candidates also condemned the attacks, with Republican Donald Trump declaring “this is war” and Democrat Hillary Clinton vowing “we will not be intimidated.Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has been “shocked by the violence and exceptional cynicism” of Thursday’s attack in Nice.

Although the cause of the attack has not been officially confirmed, Putin said on Friday in a message of condolences to French President Francois Hollande that terrorism can be defeated only if “all civilized mankind pulls efforts together” to fight militants, their leaders as well as targeting their financial backers “wherever they are hiding.” 

Putin said Russia is willing to work closely with France and other countries to fight terrorism which is “devoid of any human moral.” Japan expressed “strong shock and anger” following the truck attack in Nice. Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan also aims to strengthen its counter-terrorism measurements to ensure safety of Japan.

 Leading Muslim clerics joined Arab leaders in condemning a truck attack that killed at least 84 revellers in the Mediterranean resort of Nice on France’s national holiday.

Sunni Islam’s leading centre of learning, Al-Azhar, said the “vile terrorist attack” contradicted Islam and called for “uniting efforts to defeat terrorism and rid the world of its evil.”  Tunisia said that the attacker, who police said held joint French-Tunisian citizenship, had committed an act of “extreme cowardice” and expressed solidarity with France against the “scourge of terrorism.”

Prominent Egyptian Muslim cleric Shawki Allam condemned the assailant as an “extremist.”  

“People who commit such ugly crimes are corrupt of the earth, and follow in the footsteps of Satan... and are cursed in this life and in the hereafter.”