National Post (National Edition)
Spanish probe pointing to wider network
Strikes similar to Paris, Brussels, investigators say
WE CANNOT RULE OUT FURTHER ATTACKS.
BARCELONA • Spain was seized Friday with the realization that it had incubated a large-scale terrorist plot, as authorities across Europe mounted a manhunt following the deadliest attacks to strike the country in more than a decade: two vehicle assaults in Barcelona and a Catalan coastal town.
Investigators believe that at least eight people plotted the attacks, putting them at a level of sophistication comparable to major strikes in Paris and Brussels.
Spanish counterterrorism officers were scrambling to untangle the terrorist network, which involved at least four Moroccan citizens under age 25, according to intelligence officials. In addition to those four, authorities have detained three Moroccan men and a Spaniard.
In a sign that the attack could have been significantly worse, police said they believed the assailants were planning to use propane and butane canisters in an explosive assault against civilians. Instead, the gas ignited prematurely, destroying a house in Alcanar, about 160 kilometres southwest of Barcelona that was being used by the suspects. The explosion killed at least two people and injured 16, including police officers and firefighters investigating the site.
Hours later, police said, one of the suspects set out for the touristy Las Ramblas area of Barcelona in a white delivery van, which he used to mow down pedestrians strolling along the tree-lined promenade.
As of Friday evening, the fate of the main suspect — the driver of the van, who fled on foot after the rampage — was unclear. Police were investigating the possibility that he was among five assailants killed early Friday in a second vehicle attack in Cambrils, a seaside town about 100 kilometres southwest of Barcelona.
Meanwhile, the nation began to mourn the international group of 13 victims — including one Canadian — who were fatally struck in the heart of Barcelona’s tourist district late Thursday afternoon. A 14th victim was killed in the second ramming attack.
The slain Canadian was not identified in a statement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday confirming the death. He said four other Canadians were injured.
The bloodshed prompted France to announce it was reinforcing its frontier with Spain, a sign of fears that further violence could spill beyond Spanish borders. Antiimmigrant Central European leaders seized on the suspects’ nationalities to call for tighter controls on migration.
The Islamic State claimed that its “soldiers” carried out the Barcelona attack, but the level of actual involvement by the group was unclear.
Spanish intelligence officials were circulating at least four names among their European counterparts Friday, according to a Spanish intelligence official and a European intelligence official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The four men, all holding Moroccan citizenship, ranged in age from 17 to 24. Three were born in the North African country: Said Aallaa, 18; Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22; and Mohamed Hychami, 24. The fourth was identified in a Spanish police document as Moussa Oukabir, 17, but the European intelligence official said Spanish officials flagged someone with the same family name but a different first name. All lived in or near the Catalan town of Ripoll, close to the French border.
At least three of the men were killed in the attack in Cambrils, the Spanish intelligence official said, without identifying which of them were dead.
Two Spanish security officials said police originally sought Oukabir’s older brother because his identity card was found in the truck used for the Barcelona attack. The older brother, who is in custody, denies any connection to the attack and said his brother may have stolen his identity card, the official said.
“We cannot rule out further attacks,” Maj. Josep Lluís Trapero, a Catalan police official, said.
Authorities were not aware of any previous connection to extremism among the detained men, he said. All five men involved in the second attack in Cambrils were shot dead after plowing an Audi into people along the corniche at about 1 a.m., Trapero said.