Alleged Barcelona attack driver still at large, identified as Younes Abouyaaqoub


nsnbc : Authorities in Spain stated on Monday that they believe the driver responsible for the death of 13 people in a ramming attack last week in Barcelona is the 22-year-old Moroccan Younes Abouyaaqoub. Meanwhile, police told reporters that residue of the highly volatile TATP explosive were found in the premises in Alcanar believed to be a bomb-making facility.

A handout picture released by the Catalan regional police "Mossos D'Esquadra" on August 18, 2017 shows Younes Abouyaaqoub, one of the suspects of the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks.

A handout picture released by the Catalan regional police “Mossos D’Esquadra” on August 18, 2017 shows Younes Abouyaaqoub, one of the suspects of the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks.

Spanish and Catalan police and authorities have been searching for Younes Abouyaaqoub as the last member of a 12-person cell that reportedly is still at large. Catalan Interior Minister Joaquim Forn told Catalunya radio that “everything indicates” Younes Abouyaaqoub was behind the wheel of the van during the attack Thursday that also injured more than 100 people.

Authorities have said they do not know if Abouyaaqoub is still in Spain. Police have arrested four of the suspects, while the rest were either killed by police or died in an explosion at a house on the day before the attack. Some of the death of the alleged perpetrators occurred under suspicious circumstances. For example, one – unnamed – suspect who was first alleged to have run over two police officers before he reportedly was shot dead, was later reported to have dies of injuries inflicted with a knife.

Many of the suspects in the road rage killings allegedly had connections to the northeastern town of Ripoll, one of the places where police have focused their investigation. In a news conference Sunday, Spanish police reported that they found 120 gas canisters in a home in the town of Alcanar believed to be the bomb-making factory of the suspects in Thursday’s attacks.

A policewoman walks with dozen of gas bottles in background in Alcanar during a search linked to the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks on the site of an explosion on August 18, 2017.

A policewoman walks with dozen of gas bottles in background in Alcanar during a search linked to the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks on the site of an explosion on August 18, 2017.

Enough materials were found to carry out “one or more attacks in Barcelona”, regional police chief Josep Lluis Trapero told reporters, revealing that traces of TATP explosive were also found.

The explosion Wednesday at that house left human remains in the rubble, and authorities were conducting DNA tests as part of the investigation. In addition to Abouyaaqoub, authorities are also looking for an Imam named Abdelbaki Es Satty, whom they believe may have radicalized some of those who carried out the attack in Barcelona and one later in the resort town of Cambrils that killed one person.

It is worth noting that the alleged presence of TATP would indicate that the so-called “ISIS cell” did not have military contacts, sophisticated logistical contacts to international terrorism networks, or for that matter, even rudimentary sophistication in explosives.

TATP a.k.a. triacetone triperoxide (TATP) or tri-cyclic acetone peroxide (TCAP) is a highly volatile substance. The crystalline powder can be manufactured with materials that are more or less readily available.

All it takes is acetone, hydrogen peroxide (3% medicinal peroxide is not concentrated enough), and a strong acid like hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. However, most not highly trained and professional people who attempt to produce the substance end up with missing limbs at a morgue.

TATP is highly volatile and can easily explode when subjected to heat, friction or shock. Most more or less “connected” terrorists or professionals would avoid the substance at all cost, even – and maybe especially – as a primer charge.

TATP tends to be linked to highly controversial cases. It has made several “appearances”  as for example in a recent, reportedly “thwarted” suicide bombing that was stopped by Israeli police, and the case of the so-called “she bomber” Richard Reid who used TATP in the thwarted 2001 attempted “shoe bomber attack”. TATP was also linked to the 2005 bombings in London.

CH/L -nsnbc 21.08.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/08/21/alleged-barcelona-attack-driver-still-at-large-identified-as-younes-abouyaaqoub/

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