Police are still racing to locate everyone involved in the van attack that killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100 in Barcelona on Thursday.
Police are still racing to locate everyone involved in the van attack that killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100 in Barcelona on Thursday.
Officials say the van was rented in the name of 28-year old Moroccan born Driss Oukabir, who was taken into custody within hours of the attack, but he claimed his license was stolen. Multiple Spanish law enforcement sources told ABC News Driss has been released, and the investigation is now focused on finding the driver of the van, who is still at large.
Overnight, officials said police foiled a second attempted terror attack, killing five suspected terrorists wearing fake explosive belts in Cambrils. Details about whether this second attempted attack was directly connected to those involved in yesterday’s van attack in Barcelona are still sketchy, but the existence and the size of what is believed to be an ISIS -inspired terror cell has alarmed U. S. and European counterterrorism officials.
This was not a lone wolf attack, but instead a much more complex operations involving at least eight people who ISIS claims were soldiers of the caliphate. According to the SITE Intelligence Group, ISIS took responsibility for the Barcelona attack, calling those involved “soldiers of the Islamic state” in a statement released by its ‘Amaq News Agency.
“ISIS promotes these types of attacks because they’re easy, ” said John Cohen, the former principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism at the Department of Homeland Security an ABC News contributor. “You can take people who have received no training, who are using items that are easy to acquire. And they can still commit mass murder.”
With five suspected terrorists dead and at least four more in custody, the question now is how many more members of this possible ISIS-inspired cell are still at large, and whether they will attack before police can close in.
Two sources in direct contact with US counterterrorism officials say the events in Spain over the last 24 hours make them fear that this is only the beginning of a series of ISIS attacks across Europe.
Officials were concerned about a major series of attacks at the start of the summer and were surprised when things became fairly quiet. They fear the quiet may be over. The belief is that various potential attackers are not in contact with each other but will see the attacks in Spain as the sign to get moving.
Thursday’s attack is the just the latest in a string of deadly incidents throughout Europe in which terrorists have drawn from the ISIS playbook of using vehicles to inflict casualties.
In August of last year, 86 people were killed on by a speeding truck driven by an ISIS follower in Nice, France. In December, 12 people killed in a vehicle attack on the Christmas markets in Berlin. And 14 people were killed in two separate incidents in London this year, one on the Westminster Bridge and the other on the London Bridge.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in attacks by individuals who are inspired by ISIS or are loosely connected to ISIS in Europe and even in the U. S., ” Cohen told ABC News. “As ISIS suffers more defeats in Iraq and Syria we can only expect to see more attacks.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Randy Kreider, Pete Madden and Margaret Katcher contributed to this report.
