Search for van terrorist includes France
SPAIN: Spanish police searched yesterday for the man behind the wheel in the Barcelona van attack that killed 13 people, amid growing signs members of the militant group had connections elsewhere in Europe.
Police said security operations were under way in Catalonia and on the French border as they searched for Moroccan-born Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, the only one of 12 suspects still at large who they believe may have crossed into France.
Others implicated in the attack have been arrested, shot by police or killed in an explosion at a house in Catalonia a day before the van attack on Thursday night (local time) in Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s most famous boulevard.
Spanish media say authorities believe Abouyaaqoub drove the van through crowds of tourists and locals walking along Las Ramblas, leaving a trail of dead and 120 injured. Hours after the Barcelona attack, police shot dead five men wearing fake explosive belts in the resort of Cambrils, further down the coast, after they rammed holidaymakers with a car and stabbed others, killing one woman.
Family members said Abouyaaqoub had began showing more religiously conservative behaviour within the past year, and refused to shake hands with women during a visit to his birthplace in Morocco in March.
They expressed anger after discovering the alleged involvement in the Barcelona attack of Abouyaaqoub, his brother and two cousins, all originally from the small Moroccan town of Mrirt.
Hannou Ghanimi, Abouyaaqoub’s mother, said in Catalonia she wanted her son to give himself up to police, saying she would rather see him in prison than end up dead.
Four people have been arrested in connection with the attacks – three Moroccans and a citizen of Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla.
Police believe the group opted to launch attacks using vehicles when their base in Alcanar, southwest of Barcelona, was destroyed last Wednesday. Police believe that foiled the cell’s plans to carry out one or more large-scale bombings in Barcelona. More than 100 butane gas cylinders were found in the remains of the house. – Reuters