According to the Spanish police, officials dismantled the terror cell responsible for the attack in Barcelona. Authorities are still conducting a manhunt for a 22-year-old missing member of the cell, who’s supposedly the main culprit of the crime.
Officials said that citizens of at least 34 countries were killed or injured in the attack on Thursday, in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas. 13 people died, and about 100 wounded in the “mass outrage” – 15 of them seriously injured.
However, the investigations continue because the alleged driver of the van and two other suspects are still at large. The terrorist cell, according to authorities, is comprised of a total of 12 members with possible bases all over Catalonia.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks.
The van’s driver is still at large
Spanish officials are still searching for Younes Abouyaaqoub, a 22-year-old man born in Morocco. He’s suspected to be the driver of the van, who possibly escaped the scene on foot. It’s believed that the jihadist group first planned a bomb attack, but then it switched to a vehicle attack after the improvised explosives went off and destroyed the group’s operational base-house at the town of Alcanar, south of Barcelona.
The driver ran over one of Europe’s most iconic tourist destinations: an avenue called Las Ramblas, frequently visited by both tourists and locals. At least 13 people died, and other 100 were injured.
Despite the fact that the killer is still being searched for, Spanish authorities claim to be in control of the situation.
“The cell has been fully dismantled in Barcelona, after examining the people who died, the people who were arrested and carrying out identity checks,” said on a news conference the Spain’s Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido.This is the eighth terror attack in Europe using a vehicle in three years, and the fifth in two years. The last cities which suffered an alike attack were Nice, Berlin, Stockholm and London.
The attack on Friday ended after five deaths
Hours after the assault on Las Ramblas, five suspected “terrorists” were killed in Cambrils, Tarragona, in operation to prevent another terrorist attack. Seven people were injured.
On Friday afternoon, Catalan authorities reported that the police killed three of the main suspects for being responsible for the attack on Las Ramblas in Cambrils.
The extremists rushed in a car over a group of people walking in the street, but then they were intercepted by the police. They are Moussa Oukabir of 17 years old, who’s not just Morrocan but also Spanish, and Mohamed Hychami and Said Aallaa, aged 24 and 22 respectively, both Moroccan.
The last death was a woman who died after she was hospitalized. On Friday, the number of victims between Barcelona and Cambrils’ attacks rose to 14.
Spanish authorities have said Oukabir could have used his brother’s documents to rent two vans: The one he used in the attack, and another one he intended to use for escaping after he left the scene of the attack.
Source: BBC