Spain intensifies hunt for suspect

Police say terrorist cell had plotted much deadlier carnage

People pay their respects at a memorial Sunday for the people killed and wounded during a terror attack last week in Barcelona, Spain.
People pay their respects at a memorial Sunday for the people killed and wounded during a terror attack last week in Barcelona, Spain.

BARCELONA, Spain -- Police put up scores of roadblocks across northeast Spain on Sunday in hopes of capturing a fugitive suspect from the 12-member Islamic extremist cell that staged two vehicle attacks and plotted much deadlier carnage using explosives favored by Islamic State militants.

Complicating the manhunt, though, was the fact that police have so far been unable to identify with absolute certainty who exactly is at large.

While police have names for the 12 members of the cell, three people technically remain unaccounted for: two believed killed when the house where the plot was being hatched exploded Wednesday, and a suspected fugitive, Catalan police official Josep Lluis Trapero told reporters Sunday.

Trapero declined to confirm that Younes Abouyaaquoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan, was the suspected fugitive who allegedly drove the van that plowed down Barcelona's Las Ramblas promenade Thursday, killing 13 people and injuring 120. Another attack killed one person and injured others hours later in the seaside town of Cambrils.

"We are working in that line," Trapero said. But he added: "We don't know where he is."

Another police official did confirm that three vans tied to the investigation were rented with Abouyaaquoub's credit card: The one used in the Las Ramblas carnage, another found in the northeastern town of Ripoll, where all the main attack suspects lived, and a third found in Vic, on the road between the two.

"Our thesis is that the group had planned one or more attacks with explosives in the city of Barcelona," he said. A more deadly plot was foiled, however, when the house in Alcanar blew up Wednesday night.

The investigation was also focused on a missing imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, who police think might have died in the Alcanar explosion. Trapero confirmed the imam was part of the investigation but said police had no solid evidence he was responsible for radicalizing the young men in the cell.

Islamic extremists have made a point of targeting Europe's major tourist attractions, often with rented or hijacked vehicles. But in the last two years, the extremist group has steadily lost ground in its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

On Sunday, King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other officials attended a solemn Mass at Barcelona's Sagrada Familia basilica for the victims of the attacks, who ranged in age from 3 to 80.

The archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Joan Josep Omella, said the presence of so many people was a "beautiful mosaic" of unity and urged all to work toward a common objective of "peace, respect, fraternal coexistence and love."

Emerging from the service, Maite Foronda, a medical administrator, said she had driven more than 90 miles to send a message. "We are not afraid," she said. "We are going to go on."

But others at the Sagrada Familia admitted that despite the declarations of courage, people were fearful of a new kind of terrorist threat that allows anyone to target civilians with something as ubiquitous and accessible as a car.

"Even though we say we are not afraid, of course we are afraid," said Sonia Loffredo, an architect.

Other victims in the Barcelona attack were identified Sunday: Julian Alessandro Cadman, a 7-year-old boy who was a dual citizen of Australia and Britain; and Carmen Lopardo, 80, a citizen of Italy who lived in Argentina for most of her life.

Trapero indicated Sunday there might be a 15th victim: a man whose body was found in a car that charged through a police checkpoint after the Barcelona attacks. Police fired on the vehicle and initially thought they had killed the person found inside. A forensics examination revealed no sign of bullet wounds, Trapero said.

He said another man was seen running from the scene outside the city, suggesting a possible carjacking, but investigators have not established a link between the checkpoint incident and the terror investigation.

Vancouver police also said Sunday that 53-year-old Canadian Ian Moore Wilson was among those killed in Barcelona and his wife, Valerie, was wounded.

The Catalan regional government said 51 attack victims were still hospitalized Sunday, 10 of them in critical condition.

In Barcelona, life began to return to normal Sunday -- although there was heightened anxiety and tightened security.

Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia, said Sunday that Barcelona had "rejected terrorism."

"Normality has come back to Las Ramblas," Puigdemont said to reporters, "and we are rejecting openly any sign of xenophobia or radicalism."

Information for this article was contributed by Joseph Wilson, Lori Hinnant, Angela Charlton, Nicole Winfield, Alex Oller and Oleg Cetinic of The Associated Press; James McAuley, Souad Mekhennet and William Booth of The Washington Post; and by Raphael Minder and Patrick Kingsley of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/21/2017

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