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Barcelona attack suspected mastermind was in Brussels

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Abdelbaki Es Satty (pictured) was involved in the deadly ISIS attacks on the Brussels airport and underground in 2016" class="blkBorder img-share" /> Police are now looking into whether Abdelbaki Es Satty (pictured) was involved in the deadly ISIS attacks on the Brussels airport and underground in 2016 The Imam suspected of masterminding the Barcelona terrorist attacks travelled to Belgium three months before the Brussels bombing and was friends with the Madrid train bombers , it has been revealed.  Police are now looking into whether Abdelbaki Es Satty , who is believed to have radicalised members of the terror cell that attacked Barcelona and Cambrils, was involved in the deadly ISIS attacks on the Brussels airport and underground in 2016. Last week, a 12- strong terror cell launched attacks in northern Spain leaving 14 dead and around 130 injured.  Es Satty was reportedly friends with some of those jailed for the Madrid train bombings in 2004, having sp...

Alcanar: the coastal idyll where young militants hatched Barcelona plot | World news

T he young men on powerful motorbikes had been coming and going for months, the throbbing sound of Kawasaki engines and the scattering of stones on the track leading to their country house in Alcanar, eastern Spain, announcing their arrival. Neighbours doubted the men, mostly young-looking and all seemingly of north African origin , had rented the house as a holiday home – despite the views out across the sparkling Mediterranean from this ramshackle estate of properties surrounded by scrub, pines and small olive groves . But they knew that Banco Popular had repossessed it and, having lived through a destructive, loan- fuelled property crash , Spaniards tend not to feel much concern when such properties are squatted. “Perhaps someone should have called the police,” said Carmen Circiumaru, who lives a few doors away. “But they never did anything that seemed especially suspicious.” Indeed, the young men, and at least one older, bearded man who sometimes appeared here, were quiet and respe...

The Latest: Missing imam in Spain thought to be key figure

BARCELONA, Spain — The Latest on the Spain attacks (all times local): 5:40 p.m. A police official in Spain says an imam whose home was searched as part of the investigation into two deadly vehicle attacks is believed to be the radicalizing force behind the cell of young men — and is now thought to have died in an explosion linked to the attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details of the new suspicions surrounding imam Abdelbaki Es Satty . Officials in Es Satty’s former mosque in the northern town of Ripoll, which he left abruptly in June, on Saturday denounced the attacks in Barcelona and a nearby seaside town . The mosque president , Ali Yassine, said Es Satty told him he wanted to return to Morocco for three months and hasn’t seen him since. The police official says Es Satty is believed to have died in an explosion Wednesday that destroyed a house south of Barcelona. The day after an attack killed 13 people in Las Ramblas in Barcelona, locals try ...

Questions abound as Spanish officials investigate terrorist attacks

BARCELONA — Two days after a devastating vehicle attack on one of Europe’s most iconic tourist destinations , many questions remained as Spanish authorities continued a manhunt for a 22-year-old missing member of the cell of suspected terrorists responsible for the brutal assault that killed 14 and injured more than 100 others. Unlike other vehicle attacks Europe has endured in the last two years — in Nice, Berlin, Stockholm and London — Thursday’s in Barcelona and the one early Friday in the nearby seaside city of Cambrils displayed an unusual degree of sophistication and coordination. Authorities are investigating what they believe to be a terrorist cell of at least 12 members with possible bases in different locations across the region of Catalonia. But the Spanish government was quick to insist on Saturday that the situation was under control. Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez said that the 12-person cell had been “dismantled,” and the government ultimately decl...

French police say arrest unrelated to attack

BARCELONA, Spain The Latest on the Spain attacks (all times local): 11:30 p.m. Police in the southern French city of Nimes have arrested a man unlawfully carrying a pistol into a train station, but say he is not linked to the attacks in Barcelona. After an evacuation and police operation at the train station Saturday night , the historic city quickly returned to normal, with police returning to their posts. A national police spokesman said the operation began when a passenger alerted police to a man with a weapon. Police quickly found and arrested him, said the spokesman, who was not authorized to be publicly named. The spokesman said the man has no apparent connection to Thursday's attacks around Barcelona, about 380 kilometers southwest of Nimes. French authorities increased checks of its border with Spain after the attacks, and one suspect is believed at large. 10:50 p.m. Catalan regional police say they are mounting major road blocks throughout the northeastern regio...