08-18-2017, 02:43 PM
SPAIN
Spanish police say they've arrested four people in connection to terrorist attacks that killed 14 people and injured more than 100 others in and around Barcelona Thursday. Five suspects were killed as they tried to carry out a second terrorist attack in a nearby city.
The current location of the driver of a white van that plowed through a crowd of people on Barcelona's landmark Las Ramblas boulevard Thursday afternoon remains unknown.
Two brothers have been named in reports about the search for the perpetrators: Moussa Oukabir, a dual citizen of Morocco and Spain who was being sought by police along with three others Friday, and his older brother Driss Oukabir, who was arrested on Thursday.
According to Spanish media outlets, Driss reportedly told police that Moussa, who's believed to be 17, may have stolen his identification. It was Driss Oukabir's name that reportedly appeared on rental papers for the van used in the attack. Moussa Oukabir lived in Ripoll, north of Barcelona, where his brother was arrested. He has no police record.
Police believe that the attacks are the work of an organized group of terrorists — and that they acted after an accidental explosion derailed their plans to carry out a bombing in Barcelona.
Police say three parts of eastern Spain are focal points of their investigation and that events in all of them are linked: Las Ramblas in Barcelona; the town of Cambrils, where a second vehicular attack took place; and Alcanar, where an explosion killed one person Wednesday night.
Four people have been detained by police — and none of them had "a history of terrorism-related events," police in Catalonia said Friday. They were detained in and around Ripoll, some 65 miles north and inland from Barcelona, according to police.
Police arrested a Moroccan man whose "identification documents were used to rent the van" in the Las Ramblas attack, NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Barcelona. That man was one of three suspects who held Moroccan passports; another suspect is a Spanish citizen, Catalan Police Chief Josep Lluis Trapero said Friday.
Five men were shot and killed by police at a roadblock in Cambrils early Friday. They were wearing fake explosives on their bodies, police say.
Trapero said investigators believe those who acted were survivors from a gang that had been planning for weeks to carry out a bombing attack — but that they decided to use a van after their components blew up.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Barcelona attack, the SITE Intelligence Group reports.
Full story: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2...-hit-spain
Spanish police say they've arrested four people in connection to terrorist attacks that killed 14 people and injured more than 100 others in and around Barcelona Thursday. Five suspects were killed as they tried to carry out a second terrorist attack in a nearby city.
The current location of the driver of a white van that plowed through a crowd of people on Barcelona's landmark Las Ramblas boulevard Thursday afternoon remains unknown.
Two brothers have been named in reports about the search for the perpetrators: Moussa Oukabir, a dual citizen of Morocco and Spain who was being sought by police along with three others Friday, and his older brother Driss Oukabir, who was arrested on Thursday.
According to Spanish media outlets, Driss reportedly told police that Moussa, who's believed to be 17, may have stolen his identification. It was Driss Oukabir's name that reportedly appeared on rental papers for the van used in the attack. Moussa Oukabir lived in Ripoll, north of Barcelona, where his brother was arrested. He has no police record.
Police believe that the attacks are the work of an organized group of terrorists — and that they acted after an accidental explosion derailed their plans to carry out a bombing in Barcelona.
Police say three parts of eastern Spain are focal points of their investigation and that events in all of them are linked: Las Ramblas in Barcelona; the town of Cambrils, where a second vehicular attack took place; and Alcanar, where an explosion killed one person Wednesday night.
Four people have been detained by police — and none of them had "a history of terrorism-related events," police in Catalonia said Friday. They were detained in and around Ripoll, some 65 miles north and inland from Barcelona, according to police.
Police arrested a Moroccan man whose "identification documents were used to rent the van" in the Las Ramblas attack, NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Barcelona. That man was one of three suspects who held Moroccan passports; another suspect is a Spanish citizen, Catalan Police Chief Josep Lluis Trapero said Friday.
Five men were shot and killed by police at a roadblock in Cambrils early Friday. They were wearing fake explosives on their bodies, police say.
Trapero said investigators believe those who acted were survivors from a gang that had been planning for weeks to carry out a bombing attack — but that they decided to use a van after their components blew up.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Barcelona attack, the SITE Intelligence Group reports.
Full story: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2...-hit-spain