Hunt for twelfth terrorist
Mossos searching for only member of the group of twelve still on the run; Muslim religious leader in Ripoll under investigation for radicalising group
The state of maximum police alert following the double terrorist attack in Catalonia on Thursday yesterday focused on the location and detention of Younes Abouyaaquob, the only one of the twelve members of the jihadist cell whose whereabouts remain unknown. The three points on which the investigation is based are now the search for this individual throughout the country and also abroad - an international search and capture order was issued on Friday afternoon, the investigation work being carried out in the house that the group had in Alcanar and ongoing police enquiries in the town of Ripoll.
It is corresponding evidence between the analyses conducted at the house destroyed in the explosion and the town of Ripoll that yesterday morning led the Mossos to open a new line of research focused on determining the involvement of another North African citizen, namely Abdelbaki Es Satty, an imam at one of the mosques in Ripoll until just a couple of months ago. It is thought that the human remains found in the explosion in Alcanar may be those of Es Satty and that he could have played a part in bringing together the young people of the Ripoll cell as a radicalising agent.
The fugitive Younes Abouyaquob is one of these young people, the brother of another member of the group, Houssaine, who was shot by the Mossos in the attack on Cambrils. Younes Abouyaquob is now believed to be the terrorist who drove the van in the deadly attack on the Rambla, given that it would be impossible for one of the terrorists killed in Cambrils to have been involved in the attack carried out in Barcelona at 5 p.m.