Oukabir confirmed shot dead in Cambrils

Daily Telegraph,  19 Aug 2017:

“Barcelona attack: Police raid home of imam linked to cell behind twin terror attacks.”

  Moussa Oukabir confirmed shot dead in Cambrils
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Catalan investigators on Saturday raided the house of an imam in the town of Ripoll they believe may have overseen the cell which killed 14 people in twin terrorist attacks in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils.

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 overnight from Friday to Saturday, with officers reportedly seeking - among other evidence - DNA samples which might link him to a building in the town of Alcanar believed to be where the attack was prepared.

El Pais, a leading Spanish daily, said they were investigating whether the imam, who apparently left Ripoll around a month ago, might be one of two dead bodies discovered in the Alcanar house. Sources involved in the investigation told El Confidencial they believed he was a “spiritual or idealogical leader” to the cell members, radicalising them and helping them to plan the attacks.

The sources cited the lack of previous terror links among the group, and said they had detected a number of trips by some members to France and Morocco. Police did not officially confirm or deny the reports.

A spokesperson for the Catalan force told the Telegraph they were working on the “principle hypothesis” that the cell was comprised of 12 members, 11 of whom have now been identified and hail almost exclusively from Ripoll.

Five members died at the hands of police in the attack on Cambrils late on Thursday night, which killed one woman and injured several others.

Telegraph, “Barcelona terror attack: van crashes into crowd at La Rambla, killing ‘at least 13”, 17 Aug 2017:

Terror in Barcelona as van hits crowd in Las Ramblas

Driver arrested after escaping scene on foot

Spanish media reports 13 people killed

A white van plowed into a packed summer crowd this evening in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district. Barcelona police called it a terror attack and local media reported 13 dead and dozens more injured.

The driver was arrested around two and a half hours after the attack, reports said.

The vehicle hit pedestrians in Las Ramblas, a busy tree-lined promenade in the centre of the city.

Catalan police tweeted “there are mortal victims and injured from the crash” without specifying any numbers. Spanish media, including Cadena SER radio station and TV3, reported up to 13 dead, while other media had varying death tolls.

The street is one of the most well-known and popular parts of the city, visited by tourists and locals alike.

Images posted on social media appear to show people being tended to as they lay on the street.

Reports said the driver escaped the scene on foot and was holed up in a bar in Tallers Street. Armed police ran down the streets and through a market, checking in stores and cafes.

In photographs and videos, at least five people could be seen lying on the ground in the streets of the northern Spanish city on Thursday afternoon, being helped by police and others. Other video recorded people screaming as they fled the van.

Telegraph, “Barcelona attack victims: dead named, as fate of seven-year-old boy remains unconfirmed”, 19 Aug 2017:

Family and friends have confirmed the death of loved ones following the attack in Barcelona which killed at least 14 people and left many others injured.

   

   
 

Vice News, “ISIS claims responsibility for deadly Barcelona van attack”, 17 Aug 2017:

A speeding white Fiat van plowed into pedestrians walking down Barcelona’s popular La Rambla boulevard Thursday, killing at least 14 and injuring more than 100, in what Catalan police are calling a terror attack.
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The Islamic State group, through its media arm Amaq news agency, claimed credit for the deadly attack.

Police arrested two suspects in connection with the attack, identifying one as Driss Oukabir, a Moroccan man in his late 20s and another, still unnamed, as a Spanish national from Melilla. Oukabir reportedly rented the van from the town of Santa Perpetua de la Mogada, just north of the city. Neither of the two men arrested were driving the van, according to a senior police official. Police are actively searching for the driver.

The van mowed down dozens of people driving for about 500m before the suspects fled on foot, according to local media. Police say it was an attack “intended to kill as many people as possible.” The Spanish newspaper El Pais, quoting unnamed police sources, reported the perpetrators of the crash were holed up in a bar on Tallers Street, near Las Ramblas. Police said rumors circulating on local media that a hostage situation had unfolded after the crash were unfounded.

Catalonia’s Interior Minister Joaquim Forn confirmed that 13 people were dead, and more than 100 wounded.

  “It looked like something out of a film, guts and flesh.”

Officials initially described the incident as a “massive crash” and emergency services warned people to stay away from the area, closing metro and train stations in the general vicinity.

Eyewitnesses described the unfolding chaos as the reality of a terror attack set in.

“It looked like something out of a film — guts and flesh,” Alec Rugo, an American vacationing in Barcelona, told VICE News.

“It was really crazy. I didn’t know it was happening on the Ramblas,” said vacationer Moran Keren. “I saw some lady that I think was dying. It was crazy. A lot of people injured.”

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he is in contact with the authorities and that the priority for now was to attend to the wounded. Barcelona’s mayor said she was suspending her vacation to attend to the emergency.

[...]

In the last 12 months across Europe, there have been multiple incidents where vehicles have been driven into crowds of people, killing well over 100 people in Nice, Berlin, London, and Stockholm combined.