Although Spanish authorities say that the entire terror group behind yesterday’s horrific terror attack in Barcelona has been taken down, Catalonian authorities beg to differ (link in Dutch). According to the Catalans, two or three suspects are still on the run. Until they are eliminated or arrested, nobody can declare this terror cell defeated.
Security has been stepped up at the border between France and Spain. The reason is obvious: the authorities believe that these suspects may try to flee to France, where there is a known, large radical network of Islamist extremists.
One of these suspects is Younes Abouyaaqoub. This 22-year-old is believed to have been the driver of the minibus on the Rambla.
After the attack, three Moroccans and one Spaniard were arrested, while five other terrorists were shot and killed. This means that at least nine people were involved. However, if there are indeed two or three more suspects, it means that the terror cell consisted of, at the very least, 11 to 12 men.
That’s absolutely shocking. This was not an attack by some lost soul, a lone wolf who was just “mistaken.” This was a terror group in its own right.
What’s even worse is that the authorities have explained that most of the suspects were unknown to them because they were living in small, rustic villages. You now have to wonder: how many extremists are there actually living in Spain? How many of them are flying “below the radar” at this moment?
We can only come to only one conclusion: Spain’s terror problem is at the very least as serious as France’s.
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