Police manhunt for remaining killers deepens
Murderous operation would have been deadlier except for flawed bomb-making
BARCELONA, SPAIN— A cell of at least nine extremists meticulously plotted to combine vehicles and explosives in a direct hit on tourists, and managed to carry off most of their deadly plan, killing 14 people, authorities said Friday.
Police in Spain and France pressed a manhunt for any remaining members of the group, which Daesh claimed as its own.
Only flawed bomb construction avoided a more devastating attack, authorities said after taking a closer look at a blast Wednesday evening in the town of Alcanar that was first written off as a household gas explosion. At least one person was killed and several injured in the home where police said the deadly plan took shape.
Eighteen hours later, a rented van veered into Barcelona’s crowded Las Ramblas promenade, swerving along the walkway Thursday and killing 13 people including a Canadian. Four other Canadians were among the100 or so people injured in the attack.
Armed with an axe, knives and false explosives belts, attackers drove a second vehicle to the boardwalk in the resort town of Cambrils early Friday, fatally injuring one person. Five of those attackers were shot to death, among them 17-year-old Moussa Oukabir, according to a Spanish police union official.
Oukabir’s name was first on a document listing four suspects sought in the attacks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. The Barcelona-based La Vanguardia newspaper, Spanish national broadcaster RTVE and other outlets cited police sources as saying he was the driver of the van in Barcelona. The arrest order was issued throughout Spain and into France, according to the Spanish official and a French police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the document. They did not say what became of the other three men listed, who ranged in age from 18 to 24. All had roots in Morocco; only Moussa Oukabir was born in Spain, according to the document.
Earlier in the day, Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont said at least one “terrorist is still on out there. We do not have information regarding the capacity to do more harm.”
The French official said Spain had flagged a rented van that was believed to have crossed the border to the north.
Moussa’s brother Driss Oukabir was arrested Thursday after he went to police to report his stolen identity documents were those found in the van abandoned on the historic Las Ramblas promenade, Spanish media reported.
The brothers were born and raised in Ripoll, a quiet, upscale town of 10,000 tucked into hilly Catalan heartland and dominated by the imposing tower of the Monesteri de Santa Maria. The dented door to the family’s first-floor apartment swung open Friday; the home was empty.
Authorities said the two attacks were related and the work of a large terrorist cell that had been plotting for a long time from the house in Alcanar, 200 kilometres down the coast from Barcelona. The house was destroyed by a butane gas explosion Wednesday night that killed one person. One of those injured in the blast was taken into custody.
Senior police official Josep Lluis Trapero said police believed the apparently accidental explosion prevented the suspects from carrying out a far deadlier attack.
Police said they arrested two people Friday, after the two arrests a day earlier. In custody are three Moroccans and one Spaniard, none with terrorism-related records.
“We are not talking about a group of one or two people, but rather a numerous group,” regional Interior Ministry chief Joaquim Forn told Onda Cero radio.
Spanish authorities had not yet drawn any direct links between Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, extremists and the suspects in the Spanish attacks, but the possibility that members of the Spanish group could still be at large was chilling. Those who have survived prior attacks nearly always ended their lives with new bloodshed and a hail of police bullets.
“There is the danger they will not let themselves get caught and will do something dramatic,” said Alain Chouet, a former French intelligence official. Amid heavy security, Barcelona tried to move forward Friday, with the Las Ramblas promenade quietly reopening to the public and King Felipe VI and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy joining thousands in a minute of silence in the city’s main square.
“I am not afraid! I am not afraid!” the crowd chanted in Catalan and Spanish.
Authorities were still dealing with the Barcelona van attack when po- lice in Cambrils, 130 kilometres to the south, fatally shot the five attackers who had plowed into tourists and locals with their car near the town’s boardwalk. Forn said the five were wearing fake bomb belts.
One woman in Cambrils died from her injuries and five others were wounded, Catalan police said.
The Islamic State group said on its Aamaq news agency that the Barcelona attack was carried out by “soldiers of the Islamic State” in response to its calls for followers to target countries participating in the coalition fighting the extremist group in Syria and Iraq.
Islamist extremists have targeted Europe’s major tourist attractions in recent years. Rented or hijacked vehicles have formed the backbone of a strategy to attack the West and its cultural symbols. Barcelona’s Las Ramblas is one of the most popular attractions in a city that swarms with foreign tourists in August.
The dead and wounded in the two attacks came from 34 countries.
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.”
President Donald Trump personally offered his condolences to Rajoy and pledged to support Spanish authorities in their investigation and in bringing the perpetrators to justice, the White House said Friday.
Makeshift memorials grew along Las Ramblas after it reopened to the public, albeit under heavy surveillance and an unusual quiet.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered his condolences to the families and friends affected by the terrorist attack, calling it “a senseless loss of so many innocent people.”
“We must stand firm against the spread of hate and intolerance in all its forms. These violent acts that seek to divide us will only strengthen our resolve,” Trudeau said.
The identity of the person killed was not immediately released, nor were any details about those who were injured or their current condition. Canadian officials say they are in touch with the affected families.