Van's run called 1 part of plot

Spain blast tied to ‘cell,’ officials say

People gather Friday at a memorial tribute on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas promenade for victims of Thursday’s van attack. Flowers, messages and candles were placed on the Joan Miro mosaic in the pavement, the spot where the van stopped.
People gather Friday at a memorial tribute on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas promenade for victims of Thursday’s van attack. Flowers, messages and candles were placed on the Joan Miro mosaic in the pavement, the spot where the van stopped.

BARCELONA, Spain -- A cell of at least nine extremists plotted to use vehicles and explosives in two attacks on tourists that killed 14 people, authorities said Friday, as police in Spain and France conducted a manhunt for any remaining members of the group.

Only flawed bomb construction avoided a more devastating attack, authorities said after taking a closer look at a Wednesday evening blast in the town of Alcanar that was first written off as a household gas explosion. At least one person was killed and several injured in the explosion at the home where police said the plot took shape.

Eighteen hours later, a rented van veered into Barcelona's crowded Las Ramblas promenade, swerving along the walkway Thursday and killing 13 people. A surveillance video from inside a museum showed the van speeding down the promenade, barely missing a person with a stroller, while others scattered.

A Lafayette, Calif., man who was spending his first wedding anniversary overseas was among those killed in Barcelona, his family said Friday. Jared Tucker's sister, Tina Luke, said Tucker, 42, and his wife, Heidi Nunes-Tucker, 40, were celebrating their honeymoon there after saving up for the trip.

Click here for larger versions
Photos by The Associated Press

Hours after the bloodshed in Barcelona, attackers, armed with an ax, knives and fake explosives belts, then drove a second vehicle to the boardwalk in the resort town of Cambrils early Friday, fatally injuring one person. Five of those attackers were shot to death, among them 17-year-old Moussa Oukabir, according to a Spanish police union official, confirming Spanish news reports.

Oukabir's name was first on a document listing four suspects sought in the attacks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. La Vanguardia newspaper in Barcelona, Spanish national broadcaster RTVE and other outlets cited police sources as saying he was the driver of the van in Barcelona.

The arrest order was issued throughout Spain and into France, according to the Spanish official and a French police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the document. They did not say what became of the other three men listed, who ranged in age from 18 to 24. All had roots in Morocco; only Moussa Oukabir was born in Spain, according to the document.

Earlier in the day, Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont said at least one "terrorist is still out there. We do not have information regarding the capacity to do more harm."

The French official said Spain had flagged a rented van that was believed to have crossed the border to the north.

Moussa Oukabir's brother, Driss Oukabir, was arrested Thursday after he went to police to report his stolen identity documents were those found in the van abandoned on the historic Las Ramblas promenade, Spanish media outlets reported.

The brothers were born and raised in Ripoll, a quiet, upscale town of 10,000 tucked into hilly Catalan heartland and dominated by the imposing tower of the Monesteri de Santa Maria. The dented door to the family's first-floor apartment swung open Friday; the home was empty.

Neighbors said they were shocked by the news of Moussa Oukabir's involvement. One teenager, who identified himself only by his first name, Pau, said they played together when they were younger and he was "a good boy."

Authorities said the two attacks were related and the work of a large terrorist cell that had been plotting for a long time from the house in Alcanar, 124 miles down the coast from Barcelona. The house was destroyed by a butane gas explosion Wednesday night that killed one person. One of those injured in the blast was taken into custody.

Senior police official Josep Lluis Trapero said police believed the apparently accidental explosion prevented the suspects from carrying out a far deadlier attack.

Two people were arrested Friday, police said, after the two arrests a day earlier.

"We are not talking about a group of one or two people, but rather a numerous group," regional Interior Ministry chief Joaquim Forn told Onda Cero radio.

The sheer size of the cell recalled the November 2015 attacks in Paris, in which trained Islamic State attackers struck the national stadium, a concert hall and bars and restaurants nearly simultaneously. Since then, the extremist group has steadily lost ground in its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, most recently with its defeat in Mosul.

"This shows there is no correlation between what is happening over there with Daesh and the operational capacity of the group," said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French security analyst, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the group.

Spanish authorities had not yet drawn any direct links between Islamic State extremists and the suspects in the Spanish attacks, but the possibility that members of the Spanish group could still be at large spurred fears that, like other extremists who have survived other attacks, they would end their lives with new bloodshed and a hail of police bullets.

"There is the danger they will not let themselves get caught and will do something dramatic," said Alain Chouet, a former French intelligence official.

'I AM NOT AFRAID'

Under heavy security, Barcelona tried to move forward Friday, with the Las Ramblas promenade reopening to the public and King Felipe VI and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy joining thousands of people in observing a minute of silence in the city's main square.

"I am not afraid! I am not afraid!" the crowd chanted in Catalan and Spanish.

Residents of Barcelona said they had long feared an attack on their bustling city.

"This is a huge city, and somehow we were always expecting something like this, but of course you're never prepared," said Cristina Nadal, 44, an aide for the Catalan government, who attended Friday's moment of silence.

Spain hadn't seen an Islamic extremist attack since 2004, when al-Qaida-inspired bombers killed 191 people in coordinated assaults on Madrid's commuter trains. Unlike France, Britain, Sweden and Germany, Spain largely has been spared, thanks in part to a crackdown that has netted about 200 suspected jihadis in recent years.

The Islamic State said on its Aamaq news agency that the Barcelona attack was carried out by "soldiers of the Islamic State" in response to its calls for followers to target countries participating in the coalition fighting the extremist group in Syria and Iraq.

Islamic extremists have targeted Europe's major tourist attractions in recent years. Rented or hijacked vehicles have formed the backbone of a strategy to attack the West and its cultural symbols. Barcelona's Las Ramblas is one of the most popular attractions in a city that swarms with foreign tourists in August.

Spain's civil protection agency said 120 people were injured in the attack in Barcelona, as well as six in Cambrils. The dead and wounded in the two attacks were from 34 countries.

Rajoy called the killings a "savage terrorist attack" and said Spaniards "are not just united in mourning, but especially in the firm determination to beat those who want to rob us of our values and our way of life."

President Donald Trump personally offered his condolences to Rajoy and pledged to support Spanish authorities in their investigation and in bringing the perpetrators to justice, the White House said Friday.

In a series of tweets, Trump also said U.S. agencies were "on alert" and claimed that court challenges and opposition from Democrats have made security "very difficult." He gave no specifics.

"Radical Islamic Terrorism must be stopped by whatever means necessary!" Trump wrote. "The courts must give us back our protective rights. Have to be tough!"

The State Department said Friday that Spanish authorities still had not identified all of the casualties, so the U.S. Consulate in Barcelona is working with them to determine whether any more Americans were killed or injured.

Makeshift memorials grew along Las Ramblas after it reopened to the public.

"It's sad," New York tourist John Lanza said, as the family stood outside the gated La Boqueria market. "You can tell it's obviously quieter than it usually is, but I think people are trying to get on with their lives."

photo

AP/SANTI PALACIOS

People grieve Friday in front of a memorial tribute to the victims of Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona.

photo

AP/MANU FERNANDE

Armed police officers stand guard Friday in the Las Ramblas district of Barcelona, Spain.

Information for this article was contributed by Lori Hinnant, Joseph Wilson, Ciaran Giles, Alan Clendenning, Angela Charlton, Nicole Winfield, Alex Oller, Barry Hatton and Jocelyn Gecker of The Associated Press and by James McAuley, Michael Birnbaum, Souad Mekhennet, William Booth, Raul Gallego Abellan, Paul Schemm and Brian Murphy of The Washington Post.

A Section on 08/19/2017

Upcoming Events