Massacre manhunt
Evil cell planned even more death and destruction using explosives
A DESPERATE manhunt was under way yesterday as police hunted three dangerous members of a terror network still at large.
They are part of a 12-strong gang believed to be behind the horror attacks in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils, that left at least 14 dead and 130 injured.
Five were shot dead by police in Cambrils after they mowed down five people in a car and then continued their attack with knives and an axe.
Spanish media reported that Moussa Oukabir, 17 – believed to be the van driver that brought death and mayhem on Las Ramblas – was one of those killed by the officers, in the early hours of yesterday.
It has emerged the evil group had planned a much larger atrocity using vans packed with gas bombs to create maximum carnage and terror.
Three remaining suspects on the run are Mohamed Hychami, 24, Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, both from Ripoll, and Said Aallaa, 18, from Ribes de Freser, 75 miles north of Barcelona.
La Vanguardia newspaper published photographs of the three Moroccans identified in a police document. Three of the terrorists shot dead in Cambrils have been identified by police, but have not yet been named.
Brit judo instructor Fitzroy Davies, 54, from Wolverhampton, was at a beachside restaurant in the town when the horror unfolded.
He watched as an officer gunned down one of the last of the gang, who he said rose to his feet in a scene he compared to a “horror film”.
He said: “He took the first round of shots and he fell on the floor, and then within two seconds, I thought I was watching a film, one of them horror films... the guy just stood up.
“He was taunting, smiling, laughing – and he carried on walking to the police, and then they gave it to him again, a couple more shots and then he fell to the ground. “I can’t get that out of my mind.” It is known that in jihadist attacks the extremists often pump themselves full of drugs beforehand. ISIS fighters have used amphetamines and even heroin to “boost their prowess”.
Of four suspects under arrest, one is the brother of the driver of the car in Cambrils and another, named as Mohamed Houli, 21, from Morocco. All four are aged 21 to 34.
Police yesterday revealed the Barcelona jihadis were planning a much bigger terror attack, using vans packed with butane gas bombs to maximise the bloodshed. The sick plan failed when they accidentally blew up the house in Alcanar where they were preparing the attack. It is thought Houli was injured in the blast. Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero said 20 butane gas canisters were found among the rubble of the house, which exploded on Wednesday night, killing one person and injuring another 16. It also emerged the man found dead near a police checkpoint on Thursday was not one of the terrorists, but a Spaniard who may have been stabbed to death after being carjacked by one of the jihadis.
It was last night believed the two attacks on Thursday and in the early hours of Friday had been planned for
some time by the young men operating out of the house in Alcanar.
Mr Trapero said the explosion had left the terror gang having to launch a more “rudimentary” atrocity than previously planned. He said: “We are working on the hypothesis these attacks were being prepared for a while at this private home. We think they were preparing at least one or more attacks in Barcelona.
“The explosion in Alcanar at least avoided some of the material that they were counting on to carry out even bigger attacks.
“Because of that, the attack in Barcelona and the one in Cambrils were carried out in a bit more rudimentary way than the one they had initially planned.”
Yesterday Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism police officer said UK agents were liaising with their Spanish counterparts.
Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said: “Officers are at UK ports ready to meet British holidaymakers returning in order to take any witness accounts.”
Researchers at the Henry Jackson Society’s Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism said the pattern of ramming attacks is increasing.
Nikita Malik, senior research fellow, said: “Vehicle attacks have become mainstreamed, ordinary objects of terror.
“Our research indicates vehicle ramming attacks – using cars and trucks – have been publicly called for by both Islamic State and al-Qaeda in their English propaganda magazines, indicating such attacks are applicable to foreign consumers of their material.”