Terrorist attack in Barcelona on August 17, 2017

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Route of the delivery truck during the attack on La Rambla in Barcelona
"La Rambla" seen from the south (2015)

In the terrorist attack in Barcelona on August 17, 2017 , an assassin drove a delivery truck through a crowd on the Boulevard La Rambla in the center of Barcelona . 14 people were killed and at least 118 people injured. On the run, the assassin stabbed another person. The following night in Cambrils, five men who were driving in a car and allegedly planning a knife attack were caught by the police. They were shot dead by the police in the subsequent chase, in which they killed a woman and injured seven people.

The incidents have been classified as a jihadist terrorist attack by the local security authorities . The terrorist militia “ Islamic State ” has claimed the attack for itself through its news channel Amaq . According to the investigation, both attacks are said to have been carried out by the same Islamist terrorist cell. The cell was actually planning bomb attacks in Barcelona. However, the explosives accidentally detonated the day before the attacks in the bombing workshop of the terrorist cell in Alcanar , killing the alleged head of the cell and another terrorist member.

course

Explosion in Alcanar

On the morning of August 16, 2017 , a gas explosion occurred in a residential building in the municipality of Alcanar , 200 kilometers southwest of Barcelona, ​​which completely destroyed the building. At least two people were killed and seven people injured. The police found 120 butane and propane bottles in the ruins of the house. She assumes that a terrorist cell around the Imam Abdelbaki Es Satty triggered an explosion while trying to build bombs from converted butane gas bottles and acetone peroxide , which killed at least Abdelbaki Es Satty and another member of the cell. The self-made bombs were to be used to carry out attacks on the Sagrada Família and other buildings, one of the suspects later confessed. But after the explosives had been destroyed in the accident, the terrorist cell decided instead at short notice to go ahead with the acts in Barcelona and Cambrils.

Attack in Barcelona

On August 17, 2017 at around 4:50 p.m., a white Fiat Talento drove at high speed from Plaça de Catalunya to the Rambla, drove 530 meters south on the central part of the promenade intended for pedestrians - through the crowd - and came with the front pushed in to stand on the Pla de l'Os . The driver of the car initially fled on foot, later stabbed the driver of a parked car and then drove away in the car. The police and Guardia Civil cordoned off the area shortly afterwards, evacuated the area around Plaça de Catalunya and the area around the crime scene and began a large-scale manhunt. The metro stations in the vicinity of the crime scene were closed for security reasons.

Avoided attack in Cambrils

Beach promenade in Cambrils (2004)

In the small town of Cambrils , around 120 kilometers south of Barcelona, ​​five suspected terrorists were shot dead on the night of August 17-18, 2017. They were traveling in an Audi A3 , wore dummy explosive belts and were armed. Police on patrol became aware of them and ordered the driver to stop. He accelerated and ran over a woman on a zebra crossing who later died. At a roundabout, he hit a police car, rolled over and stayed on the roof. The five men, who were only slightly injured, crawled out of the car and ran towards a policeman, armed with ax and knives. He shot four of the five attackers. The fifth terrorist who fled was caught by another police officer after about 100 meters. When the policeman was attacked, he opened fire; the shot terrorist died later.

According to the investigators, the five people shot in Cambrils planned to kill and stab as many people as possible on the beach promenade there.

Victim

A total of 16 people, eight men and eight women, including two children, died in the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.

Suspects

According to the Catalan police, an Islamist terrorist cell of around twelve is believed to be responsible for the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, made up of people of Moroccan origin and Moroccans between the ages of 17 and their mid-30s who lived in the northern Catalan city of Ripoll . The cell was headed by Imam Abdelbaki Es Satty, who preached in the Annour Mosque in Ripoll and radicalized the other members there. Eight members of the suspected terrorist cell are dead, four were taken into custody immediately after the attacks; another in late September. The eight killed are Es Satty and one other person who died in the Alcanar gas explosion, the five people who were shot by police in Cambrils and a 22-year-old Moroccan who carried out the attack in Barcelona on August 21 was shot dead by police in Subirats .

According to terrorist Fernando Reinare, Es Satty had been in contact with jihadists in Catalonia and Brussels for more than a decade, including terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train attacks . Following a four-year prison sentence that Es Satty served in Spain for drug trafficking , he was due to be deported to Morocco in March 2015. A judge stopped the deportation, however, because Es Satty did not pose a "sufficiently serious danger" and he had tried to integrate into Spanish society. In 2016 he stayed temporarily in and around Brussels, where he became known to the police for his radical sermons. In November 2017, the Spanish secret service admitted to having maintained contacts with Es Satty from 2010-2014. This was the prescribed procedure for dealing with prisoners who had contacts with jihadists. In the Spanish edition of Público in July 2019, documents were disclosed that show a direct, active connection between the CNI and Es Satty via the sharing of an e-mail account.

consequences

Reactions

The King of Spain at the funeral service

Top politicians, representatives of international organizations, representatives of religious communities and other public figures expressed their condolences and solidarity with those affected and in the fight against terrorism. The Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont , the mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau and the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy broke off their holidays and went to Barcelona to attend the meetings of the crisis team. Rajoy, who took over the coordination because of the likely terrorist background, was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido .

Commemoration

Minute's silence at Plaça de Catalunya on August 18, 2017

On Friday, August 18, Barcelona's Mayoress Colau called for a minute's silence in the Plaça de Catalunya. After the Catalan government, the Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy also ordered a three-day state mourning.

On August 26, 2017, a large-scale demonstration against terrorism and violence took place in Barcelona under the motto “No tinc por” (Catalan for: “I'm not afraid”). According to the police, 500,000 people took part in it and moved from Passeig de Gràcia to Plaça de Catalunya , including the Spanish Prime Minister, numerous other government representatives, employees of the security forces who had cared for those affected after the attacks, and representatives of the Islamic community in Spain . With King Felipe VI. For the first time in the history of Spain a monarch took part in such a mass rally.

classification

It was the worst attack in Spain since the Madrid train attacks in 2004 and the eighth attack by a vehicle driven into a crowd within a year in Europe. According to ARD terrorism expert Georg Mascolo , the accumulation of attacks is related to the fact that the propagandists of the terrorist organization “Islamic State”, which is losing influence in Syria and Iraq, no longer call for people to travel to these war zones, but to commit attacks in Europe .

Catalonia is considered a jihadist stronghold in Spain. Between 2012 and 2017, 77 suspected jihadists were arrested there - 164 in the rest of Spain.

See also

Web links

Commons : Terrorist attack in Barcelona on August 17th, 2017  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Overview map of the newspaper La Vanguardia (operations against jihadists from 2012–2017 (black), number of jihadists arrested (red). Figures for 2017 alone in brackets)

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e What we know about the Barcelona attack. In: zeit.de. August 18, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c Lo que se sabe del atentado en La Rambla de Barcelona. In: El País , August 17, 2017 (Spanish).
  3. ^ A b Terrorist militia IS claims the attack in Barcelona for itself. In: Spiegel Online , August 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ Richard Martin, Chloe Farand and Ben Kentish: Barcelona attack: Spanish police shoot dead five suspects to stop second attack after 13 killed in Las Ramblas. In: The Independent . August 18, 2017 (English).
  5. ^ Chronology of the attacks in Spain. In: Spiegel Online. August 21, 2017. Retrieved August 21, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Massive explosion at Alcanar house on Wednesday night linked to Barcelona terror attack. In: The Telegraph. August 17, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2017 .
  7. ↑ RP Online, Police kill prime suspect - Imam died in explosion , August 21, 2017
  8. ↑ Today: Apparently an attack on Sagrada Familia is planned ( memento of the original from August 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heute.de archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , August 22, 2017
  9. ↑ Stephen Burgen, Ian Cobain: Spain terror cell was planning Sagrada Família attack, suspect tells court. In: TheGuardian.com. August 22, 2017, accessed on August 23, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Terrorist cell planned an even bigger attack in Catalonia. In: Deutsche Welle. August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  11. ↑ a b How the attackers proceeded in Barcelona. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Thomas Urban : How the attackers proceeded in Barcelona. In: sz.de . 18th August 2017.
  13. ↑ Los yihadistas de Ripoll intentaron una masacre a cuchilladas en Cambrils. In: elpais.com August 20, 2017 (Spanish).
  14. ↑ German dies after attack in Barcelona faz.net on August 27, 2017
  15. ↑ Die Welt, Why was it so easy for young Muslims to be radicalized? 20th August 2017
  16. ↑ Die Zeit: Police arrest further terror suspects , September 22, 2017, accessed on October 13, 2017
  17. ↑ Police shoot suspected terrorist Abouyaaqoub Spiegel Online on August 21, 2017
  18. ^ Spiegel Online, The Shadow Man and His Disciples , August 21, 2017
  19. ↑ Markus Kollberg: Why wasn't Abdelbaki Es Satty deported? In: FAZ.net. August 24, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Patricia Ortega Dolz: The CNI admite “contactos” with the cerebro de los atentados de Barcelona. El País from November 17, 2017
  21. ↑ Carlos Enrique Bayo: El CNI escuchaba los móviles de los asesinos de Las Ramblas cinco días antes de la matanza. Retrieved July 16, 2019 (Spanish).
  22. ↑ Ralf Streck: Spanish secret service controlled terrorist cell until attack in Barcelona. Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
  23. ↑ After the attack in Barcelona: “Be tough and strong, we love you!”. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 17, 2017.
  24. ↑ Tretze morts i més de 50 ferits en un atropellament massiu a la Rambla de Barcelona en un atemptat terrorista. In: Ara.cat , August 17, 2017 (Catalan).
    Dani Sánchez Ugart: Rajoy, Santamaría i Zoido viatgen a Barcelona per participar en el gabinet de crisi de l'atemptat. In: Ara.cat , August 17, 2017 (Catalan).
  25. ↑ Juan José Mateo: Rajoy se desplaza a Cataluña para coordinar la respuesta al atentado. In: El País , August 17, 2017 (Spanish)
  26. ↑ Minute of silence for the victims of the attack. In: deutschlandfunk.de. August 18, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 .
  27. ↑ Marc Dugge: Demonstration in Barcelona: 500,000 set an example against terror. In: tagesschau.de. August 26, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Barcelona: Half a million people with the king set an example against terrorism. In: NZZ.ch. August 27, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017 .
  29. ↑ See the list of terrorist attacks with all vehicle attacks in 2017
  30. ↑ Terror in Europe instead of a trip to IS. In: tagesschau.de , accessed on August 18, 2017.
  31. ↑ Matthias Kolb: "Barcelona is the central location of the jihadist scene in Spain" . In: sueddeutsche.de . 18th August 2017.
  32. ↑ Enrique Figueredo: Catalunya concentra la mayor actividad radical islámica de España . In: lavanguardia.com . 18th August 2017.

Coordinates: 41 ° 22 ′ 52.23 "  N , 2 ° 10 ′ 23.82"  E