DEPRAVED
Terror driver plows Spain crowd, kills 13 Cops foil second attack, shoot 5 dead Trump calls for atrocities vs. Muslims
A TERRORIST targeted tourists on one of Barcelona’s most popular boulevards on Thursday, using a rental van to barrel through crowds of people — killing at least 13 and injuring dozens more.
The brutal attack, claimed by ISIS, was part of a wave of terror that gripped Spain during a chaotic 24 hours.
A manhunt was underway for the driver who sent a shock of panic through Barcelona’s Las Ramblas district, leaving a bloody path of destruction littered with victims, some writhing in pain, others fleeing in fear, and some eerily motionless under the summer sun.
The horrific afternoon attack on one of the city’s most historic thoroughfares came hours after an explosion in a house about 60 miles southwest, an incident police said was related.
Authorities said residents of the home were preparing explosives.
Early Friday, Catalan police shot and killed five suspected terrorists after the group plowed a car into several people in the seaside town of Cambrils.
The men were carrying suicide belts laden with explosives, which were detonated by the bomb squad.
Seven people, including one police officer, were injured in the mayhem.
The attack in the quiet resort town echoed the large-scale devastation that struck at the heart of Barcelona hours earlier.
Witnesses to the carnage said the speeding white van zigzagged along Las Ramblas, a wide, busy avenue filled with tourists, ramming pedestrians and cyclists, sending some hurtling through the air and leaving bodies in its wake.
“I heard a crowd screaming . . . I saw the van. It had already been busted on the front,” Tom Markwell, from New Orleans, told the BBC. “It was weaving left and right, trying to hit people as fast as possible. There were people lying on the ground,” he said.
Photographs showed victims lying in the street.
The picturesque promenade, which features a center pedestrian plaza usually lined with stalls and shops, was transformed into a nightmarish scene of destruction.
Umbrellas, tables, shoes and abandoned items were strewn across the roadway, scattered alongside bleeding men and women.
“All of a sudden I heard a crashing noise, and the whole street just started to run screaming,” witness Aamer Anwar told Sky News.
“I saw a woman right next to me screaming for her kids,” Anwar said. “Police were very, very quickly there, police officers with guns, batons, everywhere. Then the whole street started getting pushed back,” he said.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bloodshed through its media arm.
“The perpetrators of Barcelona attack are IS soldiers and carried out the operation in response to appeals targeting coalition countries,” it said.
Police said they arrested two men Thursday evening about three hours after the van attack that injured at least 100 people — Driss Oukabir and a man from Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla — though they said neither was the driver of the van.
RTVE reported said Oukabir went to police in Ripoll to report that his identification and other documents had been stolen. Various Spanish media said that an ID with his name was found in the van.
Oukabir, a Moroccan citizen, was known to police and spent time in a jail in Figueres before being released in 2012, El Pais reported.
The 28-year-old lived in Ripoll and reportedly rented the van in Santa Perpètua, local reports say.
Catalan officials said citizens from 24 countries were among those killed and injured.
The dead included a Belgian, and a Greek woman was among the injured. Australia confirmed three of its citizens were injured; two others were Taiwanese and one was from Hong Kong, according to their governments.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called the killings a “savage terrorist attack” and said Spaniards “are not just united in mourning, but especially in the firm determination to beat those who want to rob us of our values and our way of life.”
The Union of Islamic Communities of Catalonia expressed “condemnation and repulse” in the wake of the deadly strike.
President Trump chided the attack and offered America’s support.
“The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!” Trump tweeted.
In a second tweet, Trump sug-
gested people should “study” what World War I Gen. John Pershing did to end “Radical Islamic terror for 35 years.”
Trump has repeatedly shared a debunked myth about Pershing subduing militant Muslims in the Philippines by shooting them with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood.
The U.S. Department of State issued a warning after the attack Thursday. “U.S. citizens in Barcelona are urged to avoid the areas and to follow local media and other information sources for additional guidance.”
Barcelona resident Alejandro Baraybar said he was visiting the area with friends about 20 minutes after the terror took place.
Baraybar, who lives two blocks from where the violence unfolded, described the city’s mood as somber following the attack.
“There was a lot of panic. People were overwhelmed because they were unaware of what to do and they were all running into stores,” he told the Daily News.
“The entire area is locked down, there is police tape everywhere and all establishments are shut down,” he added.
“It’s extremely quiet for a city constantly boisterous and constantly full of life and with people who are always partying and having fun,” he said.
Even before ISIS claimed responsibility, condolences poured in for the victims.
“Michelle and I are thinking of the victims and their families in Barcelona. Americans will always stand with our Spanish friends,” former President Barack Obama tweeted. “Un abrazo,” he added, using a Spanish phrase for “hug.”
Catalan Police Maj. Josep Lluis Trapero said at a news conference that investigators believe the van attack was linked to a gas explosion the previous night in Alcanar, a town south of the city, which killed one person and injured several others.
Chaos continued to roil through Spain into the early morning hours on Friday.
During the search for the driver of the van, troopers shot and killed a man who was in a vehicle that hit two officers at a traffic blockade. Cops said the incident was not related to the terror attacks.
In Cambrils, the five bombstrapped attackers were killed by cops after driving an Audi A3 into several people.
Police said they were unsure if the driver from Barcelona was among those later killed in Cambrils.
The afternoon attack in Spain’s second-largest city was the country’s deadliest since 2004, when Al Qaeda-inspired bombers killed 192 people in coordinated attacks on Madrid’s commuter trains.
It came five days after a white supremacist drove through a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Va., and followed a string of similar attacks in Europe over the past year.
In June, a van plowed into a crowd near London Bridge before two men with butcher knives targeted Borough Market, killing a total of seven people and wounding 48 others. ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack.
On Dec. 19, a driver of a hijacked truck drove into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people. In the French city of Nice, a man plowed through a crowd of people on on July 14, 2016 — Bastille Day — killing 86 people.