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Tuesday, 22nd - 28th August 2017
BarcelonaTerrorAttack T
he Spain has been shaken to its core after two terror attacks and an explosion over three days, in what authorities are treating as a trio of linked incidents. Police have said the perpetrators of the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils originally planned to use explosive devices, but their plans were foiled after bomb-making materials accidentally blew up a house believed to be the suspects’ base - in Alcanar. On Wednesday Just after 11pm the fire brigade was alerted to an explosion in a house in Alcanar, a city about 100 miles southwest of Barcelona. One person was killed and seven others were injured. One of the injured was taken into custody on Friday. Police now believe the cause of the blast came from the premature detonation of explosive devices, which the suspects had intended to use in a attacks. On Thursday a white van ploughed into pedestrians at around 5pm on Las Ramblas,
the city’s busiest tourist promenade. At least 13 people were killed and more than 120 injured in the country’s deadliest attack since the 2004 Madrid bombings. The driver of the van fled on foot and is believed to be still at large. People from at least 34 countries are among the injured, according to officials. A Belgian, two Italians and an American are among the dead. A second van, believed to be linked to the Barcelona van, was found in Vic, a town 43 miles from Barcelona, Reuters reported. A driver ran over two police officers at a security checkpoint, causing them minor injuries. It was unclear whether this was terrorism-related. In the early hours of Friday morning, five armed attackers drove a car through a crowd of people in the town of Cambrils, 75 miles southwest of Barcelona. One woman was killed and six others injured, including one police officer. - Police engaged in a shootout with the attackers, and all five were shot dead, four of them by one officer.
The attackers were wearing fake suicide belts, had carried an axe and knives in the car, and had wounded a person in the face with a knife before being shot.
Latest developments Over the weekend Catalan investigators raided the house of an imam in the town of Ripoll they believe may have overseen the cell. Police are trying to piece together how a cell composed of multiple sets of brothers from the same sleepy Pyreenes town came to carry out the devastating attacks, amid reports they planned to blow up the Sagrada Familia. The home of the imam, named as Abdelbaki Es Satty, was raided by officers reportedly seeking - among other evidence - DNA samples which might link him to the house in Alcanar believed to be where the attack was prepared. Investigators believe the imam, who apparently left Ripoll around a month ago, might be one of two dead bodies
discovered in the Alcanar house. Five members died at the hands of police in the attack on Cambrils: Moussa Oukabir, 17, Mohammed Hychami, 23 and Said Aallaa, 19, all believed to be of Moroccan origin, have been officially identified as among the attackers killed. The other two have been named by Spanish press as Omar Hychami, Mohammed’s brother, and Houssaine Aouyaaquoub, who is presumed to be a family member of Younes Aouyaaquoub, the suspected driver of the Ramblas van who remains on the run. Another four have been detained, including Driss Oukabir, Moussa’s 23-yearold brother, whose identification was found in the van that attacked Barcelona’s Ramblas but who claims it was stolen by his sibling. Almost all of the men lived in close proximity in Ripoll - Oukabir and Mohammed Hychami in the same building - while Allaa lived in the nearby town of Ribes de Freser.
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