Toys, flowers and candles are placed on the avenue to mourn for victims in the terrorist attacks in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 19, 2017.
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The main suspect in the Barcelona terror attack, Younes Abouyaaqoub, was shot dead on Monday evening, Spanish police said.
The police fatally shot five men, including Moussa Oukabir, in Cambrils, 60 miles southwest of Barcelona, during a second attack hours after the first.
Authorities believe he is responsible for the deaths of 13 people after he plowed a van through a crowd in Barcelona last Thursday.
Authorities say Abouyaaqoub, who was born in Morocco and has Spanish residency, also is suspected of carjacking a man and stabbing him to death as he made his getaway from the Barcelona attack.
Five men suspected of being part of the terror cell were shot dead there in the early hours of Friday morning in a second attack in which a vehicle was also driven at pedestrians.
Police now believe all the attack suspects have either been killed or captured. The Islamic State group initially claimed responsibility for the Barcelona attack. Of those, six have been killed by police including Abouyaaqoub, four captured and two are believed to have died in the explosion at the house, Trapero said.
Catalonia’s police chief said an imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, who had preached in Ripoll until June and was accused of radicalizing the younger cell members was likely among those killed in the blast. All other suspects are either dead or arrested.
Some witnesses reported that Abouyaaqoub was wearing a suicide belt – but could not detonate it – when he was shot. Fifteen people died as a result of the attack, and more than 100 were injured.
Abouyaaqoub was the only one of 12 suspects who was still at large. That would bring the total number of victims to 15.
Spanish authorities have said Oukabir could have used his brother’s documents to rent two vans: The one he used in the attack, and another one he meant to use for escaping after he left the scene of the attack.
His former mosque has denounced the deadly attacks and weeping relatives marched into a Ripoll square today, tearfully denying any knowledge of the radical plans of their sons and brothers.
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But Catalan official Joaquim Forn told local radio: “Everything suggests the van driver is Younes Abouyaaqoub”.
