Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 world news
Monday 21 august 2017

Spanish town struggles to square growth of extremist cell

issue, was denounce the tied to the investigation
attack, some holding up were rented with Abouy-
homemade signs reading aaquoub’s credit card: The
“Not in our name.” one used in the Las Ramb-
Police have identified 12 las carnage, another found
members of the cell, but in Ripoll, where all the main
three remained unac- attack suspects lived, and
counted for Sunday. Two a third found in Vic, on the
are believed to have been road between the two.
killed when the house where Police are investigating
the plot was hatched ex- whether a man found
ploded Wednesday, Cat- stabbed to death inside a
alan police official Josep car in Barcelona may have
Lluis Trapero told reporters been killed by an attacker
Sunday.Complicating the as well. Police believe the
manhunt for the suspected cell members had planned
fugitive and any other pos- to fill the vans with explo-
sible accomplices, though, sives and create a massive
was the fact that police so attack in the Catalan capi-
far have been unable to tal. Trapero confirmed that
pinpoint who remained at more than 100 tanks of bu-
large. The explosion in Al- tane gas were found at the
canar, 300 kilometers (186 Alcanar house that explod-
Members of the local Muslim community gather along with relatives of young men believed
responsible for the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils to denounce terrorism and show their grief miles) south of Ripoll, nearly ed, as well as ingredients of
in Ripoll, north of Barcelona, Spain, Sunday Aug. 20, 2017. Sheets read in Catalan: “We all are obliterated the bomb mak- the explosive TATP, which
Barcelona”, “This affects all of us”, “Not in the name of Islam” and “Everybody against terrorism”. ers along with the house. A was used by the Islamic
(AP Photo/Francisco Seco) police official has said the State group in attacks in
By LORI HINNANT nary secret for 12 people to for an alleged cell mem- imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, is Paris and Brussels.
ALEX OLLER keep for months on end. ber thought to still be on thought to be one of them. “Our thesis is that the group
JOSEPH WILSON In the suspected extremist the run continues. Families Trapero declined to con- had planned one or more
Associated Press cell’s final days, the group and friends in the town are firm that Younes Abouy- attacks with explosives in
RIPOLL, Spain (AP) — They accumulated more than torn between horror at the aaquoub, a 22-year-old the city of Barcelona,” he
were brothers and boy- 100 gas canisters, blew up bloodshed and grief for the Moroccan, was the one said. The plot was foiled
hood friends from a town a house in a botched ef- children they thought they at large and the suspect- when the house in Alcanar
with no unfamiliar faces. fort to make bombs, drove knew. ed driver of the van that blew up Wednesday night.
They were linked by Moroc- a van through Barcelona’s “We don’t know whether plowed down the Las Ram- None of the 12 had any
can roots and equally tied storied Las Ramblas prom- to cry and mourn them or blas promenade Thurs- known history of violent
by their upbringings in Ri- enade, and attacked what to do,” said Wafa day, killing 13 people and extremism, Spanish police
poll, an ancient hub in the beachside tourists, Spanish Marsi, who knew the at- injuring 120. Another at- have said.
Catalan foothills known for authorities said. tackers and stood with tack hours later killed one Trapero confirmed the
its monastery and passage- The Islamic State group their weeping mothers on person and injured others imam was part of the in-
ways dotted with cafes claimed responsibility for Saturday as they clustered Cambrils, a seaside town vestigation, but said po-
and kebab shops. the attacks that killed at in small groups in the town south of the city. lice had no solid evidence
But most recently, police least 14 people and left square. “They have killed 13 “We are working in that that he was responsible for
believe, the young men scores wounded. or 14 people and wounded line,” Trapero said. But he radicalizing the young men
were drawn together by Five of the dozen were a hundred, and we don’t added: “We don’t know in the cell. Es Satty in June
an imam and an alleged shot dead by police. Now, know what to do.” where he is.” abruptly quit working at a
plot to murder on a mas- Ripoll is cut off by police What the families finally did, Another police official did mosque in Ripoll and has
sive scale — an extraordi- roadblocks as the search after fiercely debating the confirm that three vans not been seen since.q