Barcelona terrorists planned to blow up city’s top landmarks
‘A much bigger attack’
THE Barcelona terrorists plotted to blow up several of the city’s major landmarks, a court heard yesterday.
Mohamed Houli Chemlal, 21, said the group had planned to use car bombs at monuments, and that an imam who masterminded the plot had intended to blow himself up.
The Sagrada Familia church – one of Europe’s top tourist attractions, with more than four million visitors a year – was among the targets, Chemlal added.
He was arrested after an explosion at a house in Alcanar, southwest of Barcelona, where police found 120 butane canisters and traces of home-made explosives.
Chemlal was injured in the blast and appeared at a Madrid court in hospital pyjamas, with bandaged arms. He is one of four arrested over the plot and the first to testify in a closed hearing before investigating judge Fernando Andreu.
Sources said Chemlal admitted they had planned a much bigger plot. But he is said to have told the judge he wanted the bombs to go off at night, so there would be fewer casualties. He said Abdelbaki Es Satty, the imam in Ripoll where many of the men lived, was the instigator, sources added.
Es Satty was killed in the house blast. The judge said a plane ticket to Brussels belonging to the imam was found in the Alcanar house with an Islamic State document.
Chemlal’s testimony confirms a theory that the group resorted to alternative tactics after acciden- tally blowing up their bomb factory a day before Thursday’s van attack on Las Ramblas.
The three other men arrested were Driss Oukabir, 28, whose ID was found in the van but who denied involvement, claiming his brother stole his passport; Mohammed Aalla, 27, owner of the Audi used in a second attack in Cambrils; and Sahal Al Karib, 34, who ran an internet cafe in Ripoll.
Oukabir is said to have admitted renting the vans but claimed he thought they would be used for a house move, a court source said. He denied being part of the cell.
Aalla claimed his Audi A3 used in Cambrils had been stolen from him, a source said. Al Karib said he only bought plane tickets for two cell members to make a profit. Police believe 12 were involved in the plot: the four arrested men; two killed in the Alcanar blast; and six shot dead by police, including Oukabir’s brother Moussa and Younes Abouyaaqoub, driver of the van on Las Ramblas.
The judge ordered Chemlal and Oukabir to jail, charged with membership of a terror group and murder. Al Karib will remain in police custody pending further investigation, while Aalla will be released on certain bail conditions.