Barcelona van attacker among five suspects ‘shot dead’ by cops

Barcelona, August 18 

The driver of the van that ploughed into crowds in Barcelona on Thursday, killing 13 persons, was one of five men shot dead by the police in a Catalan seaside resort hours later, two Spanish newspapers reported on Friday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the reports.

Josep Lluis Trapero, police chief in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia, had said earlier that it was possible, but not confirmed, that the driver was among those killed. The driver abandoned the van and fled on Thursday after speeding along a pedestrianised section of Las Ramblas, the most famous boulevard in Barcelona, leaving a trail of the dead and injured.

It was the latest of a string of attacks across Europe in the past 13 months in which militants have used vehicles as weapons — a crude but deadly tactic that is near-impossible to prevent and has now killed nearly 130 people in France, Germany, Britain, Sweden and Spain.

Suspected jihadists have been behind the previous attacks. Islamic State said the perpetrators of the latest one had been responding to its call to target countries involved in a US-led coalition against the Sunni militant group.

Hours after the van rampage, the police shot dead five persons in the Catalan resort of Cambrils, 120 km down the coast from Barcelona, after they drove their car at pedestrians and police officers. The five assailants had an axe and knives in their car and wore fake explosive belts, the police said. A Spanish woman was killed in the Cambrils incident, while several other civilians and a police officer were injured.

The police have arrested four persons in connection with the attacks — three Moroccans and a citizen of Spain's North African enclave of Melilla, Trapero said. They were aged between 21 and 34, and none had a history of terrorism-related activities. Authorities have issued arrest warrants for four further suspects in connection with the two attacks, a judicial source said, declining to give their names.

La Vanguardia, a Barcelona-based newspaper which said it had obtained an internal document from the investigation, said the four being sought were all of Moroccan origin and aged between 17 and 24.

One of those being sought by police is called Moussa Oukabir, a police source said, but it was unclear what his suspected role may be. Aged 17 or 18 and of Moroccan origin, he is the younger brother of one of the men arrested on Thursday, according to Spanish media reports.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco sent his condolences to Spain, and US President Donald Trump spoke to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy from aboard Air Force One.

Police chief Trapero said the two attacks in Catalonia had been planned for some time by people operating out of the town of Alcanar, southwest of Barcelona. Alcanar was the scene of an explosion in a house shortly before midnight on Wednesday, which police are now linking to the attacks.

The van attack was the deadliest in Spain since March 2004. Of 126 people injured in Barcelona and Cambrils, 65 were still in hospital and 17 were in a critical condition. The victims came from 34 countries, ranging from France and Germany to Pakistan and the Philippines. — Reuters