Police: Fugitive’s death ‘breaks’ cell behind Spain attacks

Abouyaaqoub’s brother and friends made up the rest of the 12-man extremist cell, along with an imam who was one of two people killed in what police said was a botched bomb-making operation.After four days on the run, Abouyaaqoub was spotted outside a train station west of Barcelona on Monday afternoon. A second witness told police she was certain she had seen the man whose photo has gone around the world as part of an international manhunt.

Two officers found him hiding in a nearby vineyard and asked for his identification, according to the head of the Catalan police. He was shot to death when he opened his shirt to reveal what looked to be explosives and cried out “Allah is great” in Arabic, regional police chief Josep Luis Trapero said.

A bomb disposal robot was dispatched to examine the downed suspect before police determined the bomb belt was not real, Trapero said. A bag full of knives was found with his body, police said.

A police photo of the body seen by The Associated Press showed his bloodied face, bearing several days’ stubble on the chin.

With Abouyaaqoub’s death, the group responsible for last week’s fatal van attacks has now been broken, Trapero said.

“The arrest of this person was the priority for the police because it closed the detention and dismantling of the group that we had identified,” he said.

Four are under arrest, and eight are dead: five shot by police in the seaside town of Cambrils, where a second van attack left one pedestrian dead early Friday; two others killed on the eve of the Barcelona attack in a botched bomb-making operation; and Abouyaaqoub.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for both the Cambrils and Barcelona attacks.

Roser Ventura, whose father owns a vineyard between the towns of Sadurni d’Anoia and Subirats, said she alerted the regional Catalan police when they spotted a car crossing their property at high speed.

“The police told us to leave the premises and go home. We heard a helicopter flying around and many police cars coming toward the gas station that is some 600 meters from the property,” Ventura said.

The search for Abouyaaqoub ended on the same day that Catalan police confirmed that he was the last remaining cell member thought to still be at large and provided a timeline of his movements.

Authorities said earlier Monday they had evidence that pinpointed Abouyaaqoub as the driver of the van that plowed down the Las Ramblas promenade, killing 13 pedestrians and injuring more than 120 others.

In a parking lot often used by university students, he then hijacked a Ford Focus belonging to Pau Perez, stabbing Perez to death and taking the wheel with his final victim’s body in the backseat. Minutes later, Abouyaaqoub plowed through a police checkpoint with the stolen car and abandoned the vehicle, disappearing into the night.

The manhunt for him reached well beyond Spain’s borders, but in the end, Abouyaaqoub died about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from where he was last spotted.

After the carnage in Barcelona, authorities took a closer look at an explosion the night before in a house south of the city. Police initially had dismissed it as a household accident.

Family and friends of the young men, nearly all with roots in Morocco, described them as well-integrated members of the community in Ripoll, a quintessentially Catalan town nestled into the foothills of the Pyrenees.

“I knew everyone implicated in the attacks. These were people who avoided problems, kept their distance when they saw a fight,” Saber Oukabir, a cousin of two of the attackers, said.

The group members started spending time with the imam who police think was their ideological leader about six months ago, Oukabir said. “I don’t know what could have happened, if he manipulated them, if he drugged them or what.”

Catalonia’s regional president, meanwhile, said regional and local authorities had rejected the Spanish government’s suggestion to place traffic barriers to protect the Las Ramblas promenade because they deemed them “inefficient.”

On Monday, crowds of people continued to lay flowers, candles and heart-shaped balloons at the top of the pedestrian promenade where the van struck and at other smaller tributes.

Las Ramblas also regained some normality, with throngs of people walking up and down, tourists arriving and residents going about their daily business.

“We have to stand strong in front of these betrayers, assassins, terrorists,” said resident Monserrat Mora. “Because Barcelona is strong and they will not be able to prevail with us.”

AFP