Canadian among dead in Barcelona attack
SPANISH INVESTIGATION POINTING TO WIDER TERROR NETWORK
Spain was seized Friday with the realization that it had incubated a large-scale terrorist plot, as authorities across Europe mounted a manhunt following the deadliest attacks to strike the country in more than a decade: two vehicle assaults in Barcelona and a Catalan coastal town.
Investigators believe that at least eight people plotted the attacks, putting them at a level of sophistication comparable to major strikes in Paris and Brussels.
Spanish counterterrorism officers were scrambling to untangle the terrorist network, which involved at least four Moroccan citizens under age 25, according to intelligence officials. In addition to those four, authorities have detained three Moroccan men and a Spaniard.
In a sign that the attack could have been significantly worse, police said they believed the assailants were planning to use propane and butane canisters in an explosive assault against civilians. Instead, the gas ignited prematurely, destroying a house in Alcanar, about 160 kilometres southwest of Barcelona that was being used by the suspects. The explosion killed at least two people and injured 16, including police officers and firefighters investigating the site.
Hours later, police said, one of the suspects set out for the touristy Las Ramblas area of Barcelona in a white delivery van, which he used to mow down pedestrians strolling along the treelined promenade.
As of Friday evening, the fate of the main suspect — the driver of the van, who fled on foot after the rampage — was unclear. Police were investigating the possibility that he was among five assailants killed early Friday in a second vehicle attack in Cambrils, a seaside town about 100 kilometres southwest of Barcelona.
Meanwhile, the nation began to mourn the international group of 13 victims — including one Canadian — who were fatally struck in the heart of Barcelona’s tourist district late Thursday afternoon. A 14th victim was killed in a later attack.
The Canadian killed in the Barcelona attack has been identified as Ian Moore Wilson, the father of a Vancouver police officer. Four other Canadians were injured in the deadly ramming.
The bloodshed prompted France to announce it was reinforcing its frontier with Spain, a sign of fears that further violence could spill beyond Spanish borders. Antiimmigrant Central European leaders seized on the suspects’ nationalities to call for tighter controls on migration.
The Islamic State claimed that its “soldiers” carried out the Barcelona attack, but the level of actual involvement by the terrorist group was unclear.
Spanish intelligence officials were circulating at least four names among their European counterparts Friday, according to a Spanish intelligence official and a European intelligence official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The four men, all holding Moroccan citizenship, ranged in age from 17 to 24. Three were born in the North African country: Said Aallaa, 18; Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22; and Mohamed Hychami, 24. The fourth was identified in a Spanish police document as Moussa Oukabir, 17, but the European intelligence official said Spanish officials had flagged someone with the same family name but a different first name. All lived in or near the Catalan town of Ripoll, close to the French border.
At least three of the men were killed in the attack in Cambrils, the Spanish intelligence official said, without identifying which of them were dead.
Two Spanish security officials said police originally sought Oukabir’s older brother because his identity card was found in the truck used for the Barcelona attack. The older brother, who is in custody, denies any connection to the attack and said his brother may have stolen his identity card, the official said.
“We cannot rule out further attacks,” Maj. Josep Lluís Trapero, a Catalan police official, told reporters in Barcelona.
Authorities were not aware of any previous connection to extremism among the detained men, he said. All five men involved in the second attack in Cambrils were shot dead after plowing an Audi into people along the corniche at about 1 a.m., Trapero said.
The nationality of the men was sure to raise alarm in European counterterrorism circles. Moroccan networks also were connected to major terrorist attacks in France and Belgium in recent years. Spain has a significant Moroccan population, and there has been a spike in arrivals of migrants from Morocco by sea this year.
“It is evident to everyone that there is a correlation between illegal immigration and terrorism,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told his country’s MTI news agency. “Europe must protect itself, and the security of the people must be guaranteed.”
Demonstrations materialized Friday evening over the place of Islam in Europe. A small group of far-right demonstrators gathered in Barcelona’s main square to
WE CANNOT RULE OUT FURTHER ATTACKS.
protest what they called the “Islamicization of Europe.” They were met by thousands of counterprotesters who decried Islamophobia, waved rainbow flags and shouted slogans such as “Barcelona! Anti-fascist!”
In a series of tweets, President Trump said U.S. agencies were “on alert” and charged that court challenges and opposition from Democrats have made security “very difficult.” He gave no specifics.
“Radical Islamic Terrorism must be stopped by whatever means necessary!” Trump wrote. “The courts must give us back our protective rights. Have to be tough!”