Spain mourns its victims as probe zeroes in on imam
BARCELONA: Grief-stricken Barcelona paid homage on Sunday to victims of two terror assaults at a mass in the city’s Sagrada Familia church, as investigators turned their focus to a missing Moroccan imam believed to have radicalised the young attackers.
King Felipe, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Catalonia’s president Car les Puig de mont led the ceremony mourning the 14 people killed by jihadists who used vehicles to mow down pedestrians in Barcelona’s Las Ra mb las boulevard on Thursday and in the nearby seaside resort of Cambrils on Friday.
Interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said on Saturday the cell behind the carnage that also injured 120 had been “dismantled,” although local authorities took a more cautious tone.
Investigators are seeking to unravel the role of imam Abdelbaki Es Satty, believed to have radicalised many of the youths from Ripoll, at the foot of the Pyrenees. Several of the suspects grew up or lived in the town of about 10,000 inhabitants.
‘MOTHER OF SATAN’ EXPLOSIVE FOUND
Traces of the easy-to-make but deadly explosive T ATP—known as the “mother of Satan” — have been found in a house where the alleged attackers in the twin assault sin Spain were believed to be building bombs, police said.
Used by jihad is ts everywhere, the dangerously unstable TATP has become the explosive of choice for the Islamic State group, which claimed the twin attacks in Spain. AFP