Barcelona attack suspect shot dead
SPAIN: The terrorist who went on the run after killing 14 people in Barcelona has been shot dead while wearing a fake suicide belt.
Younes Abouyaaqoub was shot yesterday by armed police in the town of Sant Sadurni d’Anoia in the district of Subirats, around 50 kilometres west of Barcelona, bringing to an end a five-day international manhunt.
The 22-year-old Moroccan reportedly shouted ‘‘Allahu akbar’’ as he was challenged by officers, leading to fears that he was about to launch a bomb attack. Police used a remote-controlled robot to check his body for explosives, but later confirmed that the suicide belt he was wearing was fake.
Abouyaaqoub was the last remaining member of the jihadist cell responsible for last week’s twin terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. Police believe he was at the wheel of a Renault van when it ploughed into crowds on Las Ramblas on Friday, killing 13 people.
He fled on foot before hijacking a car and killing its owner in order to make his getaway. He then rammed the car through a police checkpoint before abandoning it and again fleeing on foot.
Several hours later, five of his associates launched a second attack in the coastal resort of Cambrils, in which a woman was stabbed to death and a police officer badly injured. All five terrorists were shot dead by police at the scene.
There had been fears that Abouyaaqoub had fled across the border into France and might be preparing another terrorist outrage.
But the Catalan police force was alerted when a resident of Subirats spotted a man acting suspiciously in a street. She shouted to ask him what he was doing, causing him to run off towards a vineyard, where he was quickly challenged by armed officers.
Roget Queral, an 18-year-old resident of Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, said he believed he had seen Abouyaaqoub in the area before last week’s attacks, leading to suggestions that he may have had a hideout in the town.
Police are continuing to piece together the movements of the cell, which was based in the town of Ripoll, around 100km north of Barcelona in the foothills of the Pyerenees.
It is now believed that 40-yearold Abdelbaki Es Satty, the local imam, was responsible for radicalising the 12-strong Moroccan group. It is thought that the former hashish smuggler became a jihadist after meeting one of the ringleaders of the 2004 Madrid train bombings while serving a four-year prison sentence in Valencia. After his release, he moved to Ripoll and began working at the local mosque.
Spanish authorities are almost certain Es Satty was one of two men who died in an explosion at a suspected bomb factory in the town of Alcanar last week. A man who survived the blast has been placed under arrest, and four other suspects also remain in custody.
– Telegraph Group