Featured image: Spanish authorities say Younes Abouyaaqoub was driving the van that killed 13 people in Barcelona. (Photo: Mossos d’Esquadra/Catalan Police)
On Monday it was reported that Younes Abouyaaqoub, the terrorist suspected of driving the van that killed 13 people in Barcelona last week, was shot dead by Catalonian police.
A 14th fatality occurred when Abouyaaqoub stabbed and carjacked a motorist during his getaway from La Rambla, and a 15th occurred after other members of the terror cell drove their car into pedestrians and stabbed a woman in the town of Cambrils before being shot and killed by police themselves.
Like the five suspects killed in Cambrils, Abouyaaqoub was also wearing a fake suicide bomb belt when police fired at him. It is interesting to note that the alleged perpetrators of the London Bridge attacks in June of this year were also supposedly wearing fake suicide bomb vests during their attack.
It is also claimed that Abouyaaqoub shouted “Allahu akbar” before police shot him, another recurring feature of recent terrorist incidents.
Furthermore, while it was not initially clear whether there was a link between this incident and the attack in Barcelona, the white Ford Focus that rammed two police officers at a terror checkpoint on Thursday evening is now said to have been driven by Abouyaaqoub.
Other developments in the narrative include that the terrorist cell’s imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, allegedly the ideological ringleader of the cell, is believed to have been killed in the explosion that occurred last Wednesday night in the town of Alcanar. It is claimed that he was radicalized while serving time in prison for smuggling hashish, as during his prison term he met Rachid Aglif, who is serving an 18-year term for his role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings. However, some may find this explanation lacking as it is also being reported that Es Satty lived with Mohammed Fahsi between 2003 and 2005, shortly before Fahsi was accused of being an al-Qaeda recruiter and jailed for funding terrorism.
In the first days after the attack in Barcelona, the press was quick to point out how none of the suspects were known to authorities, unlike the many ‘known wolves’ 21WIRE has reported on in the past. However, it would be hard to make that claim about the ringleader Es Satty, who had not only served time in prison and been granted a reprieve from deportation, but who also shared an address with a known terrorist financier and recruiter.
One other thread in the story concerns a Madrid court which has been receiving the testimony of surviving members of the terror cell. Confidential information from the proceedings is being anonymously leaked to the press. Among this leaked information are claims that other attacks were planned, including a possible bomb attack on the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona.
More on this story from The Telegraph…
Mossos d’Esquadra, the police force in Catalonia, shot and killed (Photo: Feliciano Guimarães. Source: Wikicommons)
Hannah Strange, James Badcock & Martin Evans
The Telegraph
The terrorist who went on the run after killing 14 people in Barcelona has been shot dead while wearing a fake suicide belt.
Younes Abouyaaqoub was shot on Monday by armed police in the town of Sant Sadurni d’Anoia in the district of Subirats, around 30 miles west of Barcelona, bringing to an end a five-day international manhunt.
The 22-year-old Moroccan reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” as he was challenged by officers, leading to fears that he was about to launch a bomb attack. Police used a remote-controlled robot to check his body for explosives, but later confirmed that the suicide belt he was wearing was fake.
Abouyaaqoub was the last remaining member of the jihadist cell responsible for last week’s twin terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. Police now believe he was at the wheel of the van when it ploughed into crowds on Las Ramblas on Thursday afternoon, killing 13 people including Julian Cadman, a seven-year-old British boy.
Continue reading this story at The Telegraph
