Scores, including 5 terror suspects killed, 100 injured in road rage attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils


nsnbc : Thursday night a van veered off the road and ploughed through people outside the Place de Catalunya metro station in Barcelona, killing 13 and injuring about 100 people. Friday morning police in Cambrils killed four alleged terrorists and injured another one. Claims were made both incidents plus a third one, an explosion in a house, were related and linked to the Islamic State. However, evidence to substantiate these claims is at this time sketchy.

Barcelona_Road Rage_Spain_Aug 17, 2017The van attack and shooting in Barcelona and Cambrils may, could according to local police, possibly have been linked to an explosion in a house in the hamlet of Alcanar, some 200 kilometers south of Barcelona on Wednesday. One person was killed and sixteen were wounded. Senior police official Josep Lluis Trapero said the blast was related to the “van attack” in Barcelona. He added that those who were in the house were trying to make an explosive device and that the blast was the result of an accumulation of gas. However, neither Trapero nor other police officers would name any specific names, or other details that could currently be used to substantiate the claim that the incidents were linked.

Thursday at 5 p.m. local time a white Fiat van veered off the road and ploughed into a crowd outside the Place de Catalunya metro station in Barcelona. 13 people were killed and about another 100 were injured. The driver of the van then continued down the pedestrian boulevard of Las Ramblas; A popular tourist destination. The van came to a halt after it had been driven some 500 meters up the boulevard, causing panic among passers by and locals.

At 6:30 p.m. police found another white van in the town of Vic, some 80 kilometers north of Barcelona, and presumed it was a getaway vehicle because this van had been hired by the same person who hired the van that was used in Barcelona. The driver and perpetrator of the “road rage” attack remains at this time on the run. At 7:00 p.m. Catalan police stated that they are now treating the incidents as acts of terrorism and activated the “terrorist attack protocol”.

 At 7:30 a man was killed when he reportedly tried to drive through a police roadblock in the town of San Just Desvern, on the outskirts of Barcelona. According to initial reports the – unnamed – man was shot dead by police gunfire after running over two officers, allegedly leaving one with a broken leg. However, Friday morning the story had all the sudden changed when Catalan Interior Minister Joaquim Forn contradicted earlier reports and said the – still unnamed – man died of knife wounds not inflicted by police. He added that a connection to the other incidents could no longer be ruled out.

The work of journalists could – of course – have been made much more easy if police and the Catalan Interior Minister had released the name of the deceased and information about who will carry out the autopsy. Distinguishing between gunshot wounds and knife wounds as cause of death should not be too difficult for reporters, provided that they are given access to actual evidence.

At 8:00 p.m. police stated that a Driss Oukabir had been arrested after he turned himself in. The 28-year-old Moroccan-born Spanish resident was linked to the Barcelona incident by documents, allegedly left at the scene. However, Oukabir claims that his passport and ID had been stolen and that he had nothing to do with the attack. Driss Oukabir was arrested in the Catalan town of Ripoll, some 110 kilometers from Barcelona.

At about 9:00 p.m. the Islamic State linked Amaq news agency published a report claiming responsibility for the van attack. However, Amaq did not publish information that hadn’t already been released by police and media. Amaq’s modus operandi is typically to use information about “road rage and similar attacks” that is in the public domain already and to claim responsibility for them on behalf of Islamic State (ISIS / ISIL / Daesh). It is safe to conclude that “an article in Amaq” would neither stand in a court of law or withstand serious journalistic scrutiny.

At 9:30 another – unnamed – suspect was, according to Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont, arrested. Police official Josep Lluis Trapero stated that this second – unnamed – suspect was a man born in the Spanish territory of Melilla in northern Morocco. This second suspect was reportedly also arrested in Alcanar at the site of the house explosion on Wednesday.

Friday morning at 1:00 a.m. killed four “alleged” terrorists and injured another one when they allegedly committed an attack in the coastal town of Cambrils, some 120 kilometers south of Barcelona. Police say the suspects drove an Audi A3 car into pedestrians, injuring six passers by and one police officer. At 4:00 a.m. it was reported that the injured suspect also had died. Police also stated that one of the victims injured in this attack is in hospital in critical condition.

At 4:00 a.m. Catalan Interior Minister Joaquim Forn commented on the death at the police roadblock in San Just Desvern. He now claimed the owner of the car wasn’t driving and in the passenger seat. He wasn’t killed but rather stabbed to death, he said. If the minister and police could be more specific and tell who it was that was driving the car, whether police fired shots, at whom, and who was driving the car – and where the autopsy is conducted – it would make the job of serious journalists who don’t just mindlessly regurgitate statements much more easy. Forn claimed a hunt for the person who had driven the car was now underway and that the incident, possibly, could be linked to the other events.

At 8:30 police stated that they had arrested a third suspect in connection with the incident in Dripoll, where Driss Oubakir had been arrested on Thursday. No name was released.

CH/L & A/N – nsnbc 18.08.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/08/18/scores-including-5-terror-suspects-killed-100-injured-in-road-rage-attacks-in-barcelona-and-cambrils/

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