Barcelona attack: what we know about the attackers so far


BARCELONA, 18 August - (ANA) - The one man so-far pictured over the Barcelona van attack claims his documents, which were used to rent the vehicle involved, were stollen, but little else is known about the terror squad now linked to three incidents in Spain.

Early Friday morning police shot dead five suspected terrorists, wearing fake suicide belts, after their Audi A3 overturned when they crashed it into a crowd of people in Cambrils, 68 miles south-west of Barcelona, injuring a police officer and six others.

The identities of those men have not yet been released.

The gunfight followed a van attack on Barcelona’s famed tourist strip, Las Ramblas, on Thursday that killed thirteen and left more than 100 men, women and children injured.

The incidents have also been linked to an explosion an a house in the town of Alcanar, 120 miles south of Barcelona, on Wednesday, that left one dead.

Two men including Moroccan-born Driss Oukabir - the only one to be publicly named - were arrested following the Barcelona attack.

Police have not identified the men, only saying that one of them was a Spanish national from Melilla, a Spanish-run Mediterranean seafront enclave in North Africa, who was arrested in Alcanar, and the other was Moroccan.

Police arrested another suspect, connected to the Cambrils attack, early Friday.

Oukabir was arrested in Ripoll, around 60 miles outside of the Spanish city, after his documents were found in the van. His image then circulated in media reports.

Spanish media have reported that the 28-year-old’s younger brother, Moussa Oukabir, is now being sought by police.

The van driver in the Barcelona incident is still at large and is thought to have been the sole attacker. He fled the scene on foot and is still at large, police have said.

According to a report by Reuters, Spanish authorities believe there may have been eight people involved in the terror cell and that the group had planned to use butane gas canisters in Thursday’s attack.

Meanwhile, according to reports published in Spanish newspaper, El Periodico, the CIA warned local police in Barcelona two months ago that Las Ramblas could be the target of a terrorist attack.

“The CIA warned the Mossos [local police] two months ago that Barcelona, and in particular the Rambla, could be the scene of a terrorist attack like the one that occurred this afternoon,” the report said.

AB/ANA/ 18 August 2017 - - -