It appears as though the final member of the 12-man jihadi cell suspected of orchestrating the dual terror attacks in Spain last week has been killed by police. Over the weekend, authorities identified 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaquoub as the only remaining suspect yet to be apprehended after the tragedies in Barcelona and the seaside town of Cambrils.
He is dangerous and could be armed. He is sought as the alleged perpetrator of the Barcelona attack on August 17. He was the van driver pic.twitter.com/zKM5kV0RzM
— Mossos (@mossos) August 21, 2017
Monday afternoon, Spanish police reported that they shot a man believed to be Abouyaaquoub, who appeared to be wearing a suicide belt, in the city of Subirats, about 30 miles west of Barcelona. The public had been warned the suspect was potentially armed and dangerous.
The suspicious man in #Subirats wears what looks like a belt of explosives attached to the body. This man has been shot down
— Mossos (@mossos) August 21, 2017
“The suspicious man in Subirats wears what looks like a belt of explosives attached to the body,” regional police said via Twitter. “This man has been shot down.”
According to the Telegraph, Joaquin Form, the Catalan regional interior secretary, had told local radio that “everything indicates” Abouyaaqoub was the driver at the wheel of the van that rammed into pedestrians at Barcelona’s La Boqueria market on Thursday, killing 13 and wounded more than 100 others. The Moroccan national was seen on surveillance footage fleeing the scene on foot, sparking a massive manhunt that authorities said included “all European countries.”
NBC News reports that police said Abouyaaquoub evaded immediate capture by walking just under four miles to Barcelona’s university neighborhood where he then killed 34-year-old Pau Perez and took his vehicle. Police apparently tried to stop Abouyaaqoub, firing shots at the car. He managed to escape, and ran over a policewoman in the process.
In interviews with the press, the suspect’s mother pleaded with her son to turn himself in.
“He must go to the police,” Hannou Ghanimi told reporters Sunday.
It is now believed that authorities are trying to piece together potential links between the Spanish attacks and previous incidents in Brussels in 2016 and Paris in 2015.