On the afternoon of 17 August 2017, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van
into pedestrians on
La Rambla in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
killing 13 people and injuring at least 130 others, one of whom died 10 days later on 27 August. Abouyaaqoub fled the attack on foot, then killed another person in order to steal the victim's car to make his escape.
Nine hours after the Barcelona attack, five men thought to be members of the same terrorist cell drove into pedestrians in nearby
Cambrils
Cambrils () is a coastal town in the comarca of Baix Camp, province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. The town is near the tourist town Salou and is frequently visited by those travelling by air using Reus Airport.
History
Roman empire to Middl ...
, killing one woman and injuring six others. All five of those attackers were shot and killed by police.
The night before the Barcelona attack, an explosion occurred in a house in the Spanish town of
Alcanar
Alcanar () is a Spanish municipality of the Catalan comarca of Montsià, in the Tarragona province. It is a coastal town on the Mediterranean Sea. The Serra del Montsià range and its foothills rise above the town and its surroundings. According ...
, destroying the building and killing two members of the terrorist cell, including the 40-year-old
imam thought to be the mastermind. The home had more than 120 gas canisters inside which police believe the cell was attempting to make into one large bomb (or three smaller bombs to be placed in three vans which they had rented) but which they accidentally detonated.
The
Prime Minister of Spain
The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government ( es, link=no, Presidente del Gobierno), is the head of government of Spain. The office was established in its current form by the Constitution of Spain, Constitution of 1978 a ...
,
Mariano Rajoy
Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...
, called the attack in Barcelona a
jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
attack.
Amaq News Agency attributed indirect responsibility for the attack to the Islamic State.
The attacks were the deadliest in Spain since the March
2004 Madrid train bombings and the deadliest in Barcelona since the
1987 Hipercor bombing
The Hipercor bombing was a car bomb attack by the Basque separatist organisation ETA, which was classified as a terrorist group. It took place on 19 June 1987 at the Hipercor shopping centre on Avinguda Meridiana, Barcelona, Spain. The bombing k ...
.
Younes Abouyaaqoub, the driver of the van in the Barcelona attack, was killed by police in Subirats, a town west of Barcelona on 21 August.
A 2022 statement by former Spanish police commissioner
José Manuel Villarejo appeared to suggest in the Spanish High Court that the Spanish
National Intelligence Service was aware of the attacks.
Others have dismissed this statement as a conspiracy theory.
Attacks
Van attack on pedestrians in La Rambla
At 16:56
CEST (
UTC+2
UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in:
As standard time (year-round)
''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...
) on 17 August 2017, Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a white
Fiat Talento
The Fiat Talento () is a light commercial vehicle produced by the Italian automaker Fiat, first sold in 1981. It is offered in two non consecutive generations.
*First generation (1989–1993): short wheelbase version of the Fiat Ducato.
*Second g ...
van onto the
pavement of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
's
La Rambla, crashing into pedestrians for about between
Plaça de Catalunya and
Liceu
The Gran Teatre del Liceu (, English: Great Theatre of the Lyceum), known as ''El Liceu'', is an opera house in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Located in La Rambla, it is the oldest running theatre in Barcelona.
Founded in 1837 at another ...
before stopping on the
Joan Miró mosaic. Witnesses said the vehicle zigzagged at high speed down the street, ramming pedestrians and cyclists.
The numerous impacts the van had received caused the airbag to inflate and the driver protection system to automatically shut down the electrical system of the van, causing it to halt. In the confusion, Abouyaaqoub was able to get away. He fled on foot and made his way to the university district before hijacking a car and stabbing the driver to death.
The van used in the La Rambla attack was rented in the neighbouring area of
Santa Perpètua de Mogoda,
along with a similar van, considered to be a
getaway vehicle and found by 19:00 in
Vic. Younes Abouyaaqoub's credit card was used to pay for the van rental.
In a police
press conference
A press conference or news conference is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians, corporations, non-governmental organ ...
at 19:00 local time, a spokesperson confirmed the terrorist nature of the event.
Ramming of police barricade on Avinguda Diagonal
About two hours after the attack on La Rambla, a white
Ford Focus
The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company since 1998. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worldwide. The ...
rammed a police barricade in
Avinguda Diagonal
Avinguda Diagonal (, in Spanish Avenida Diagonal) is the name of one of Barcelona's broadest and most important avenues. It cuts the city in two, diagonally with respect to the grid pattern of the surrounding streets, hence the name.
It was or ...
, leaving an officer injured. The vehicle fled to a neighboring area,
Sant Just Desvern
Sant Just Desvern (; ) is a town near Barcelona, in the ''comarca'' of the Baix Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain.
Sant Just Desvern is located in the 2,078317º of longitude and 41,381611º of latitude.
It is situated at 122 m (average) above se ...
, and the driver abandoned the car near the building known as
Walden 7
Walden 7 is an apartment building designed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and located in Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. It was built in 1975.
Name
The name of the building is inspired by B. F. Skinner's novel, ...
. The police found a man stabbed to death in the rear seat who, they believe, was murdered by the Ramblas driver who had escaped by hijacking the car.
Related events
Alcanar explosions
= First explosion
=
On August 16, a day prior to the Barcelona attacks, an explosion destroyed a house in
Alcanar
Alcanar () is a Spanish municipality of the Catalan comarca of Montsià, in the Tarragona province. It is a coastal town on the Mediterranean Sea. The Serra del Montsià range and its foothills rise above the town and its surroundings. According ...
. Abdelbaki Es Satty and another man, Youssef Aallaa, died in the Alcanar explosion.
Police initially thought it was an accidental
gas explosion
A gas explosion is an explosion resulting from mixing a gas, typically from a gas leak, with air in the presence of an ignition source. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as n ...
, but hours later believed the explosion was caused by stockpiled explosives accidentally going off. A Moroccan man was injured in the explosion and taken to the hospital. The explosive
TATP and 120 canisters of
butane and
propane were found inside the house.
Catalan bomb squads carried out a controlled explosion at the property where the gas canisters were stored. There was speculation that the terrorists intended to take trucks loaded with explosives and combustible gas to attack the
Sagrada Família
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, shortened as the Sagrada Família, is an unfinished church in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by ...
.
Police said they were working under the hypothesis that the terrorists shot in Cambrils were connected to the Barcelona attack and Alcanar explosions. Police chief Josep Lluís Trapero believed terrorists were in the process of manipulating the gas canisters when they exploded, after which they decided to continue their plans by conducting more rudimentary vehicle ramming attacks.
= Second explosion
=
A second explosion occurred at the same location during excavation, possibly caused by a spark from a
backhoe igniting a gas canister among the debris. At least nine people were injured, with one police officer in critical condition.
Cambrils attack
At about 21:30 on 17 August, Houssaine Abouyaaqoub, Omar Hichamy, Mohamed Hichamy, Moussa Oukabir, and Said Aalla were seen on a security camera at a local shop purchasing four knives and one axe.
At around 1:00 AM on 18 August in Cambrils, the five men drove an
Audi A3
The Audi A3 is a subcompact executive/small family car (C-segment) manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Audi AG since September 1996, currently in its fourth generation.
The first two generations of the Audi A3 were based on the ...
automobile into a crowd of pedestrians before it rolled over at the intersection of Passeig Miramar, Passeig Marítim and Rambla de Jaume I streets. The five individuals inside were wearing fake
suicide vests, and attacked bystanders with knives. They stabbed a 63-year-old Spanish woman to death and injured six other people in the attack, including a Cuban tourist and a police officer.
A police officer shot and killed four of the assailants, while a fifth died of his injuries hours later. Bystanders filmed one of the assailants being shot by police as he ran towards them.
The men were linked to the Barcelona attack according to the police.
Subirats
On 21 August, police shot and killed Younes Abouyaaqoub in an area of vineyards near the train tracks, thanks to the call of a neighbor of the town warning that there was a stranger in the vicinity of the town that could correspond to the terrorist from Las Ramblas.
Casualties
Aside from eight attackers, 16 people of nine nationalities were killed: 14 who were struck by the van in La Rambla, including one who died from injuries ten days after the attack,
one stabbed in Barcelona by the La Rambla attacker when the attacker stole his car, and one who was struck by the car in Cambrils. Eleven of the victims were foreign nationals, ten of them tourists.
More than 130 people from over 34 nations were injured, many critically.
[
]
Suspects
The imam Abdelbaki Es Satty died in the Alcanar gas explosion on 16 August, as did Youssef Aalla, brother of Said Aallaa. Five suspected members were shot dead by police on 18 August after the Cambrils attack: Moussa Oukabir, Omar Hychami, El Houssaine Abouyaaqoub, Said Aallaa and Mohamed Hychami. Younes Abouyaaqoub, the man believed to have been the van driver, was killed by police on 21 August. Four additional suspects were detained by police.
Younes Abouyaaqoub
Younes Abouyaaqoub, aged 22, was born on 1 January 1995 in M'rirt, Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
, and had lived in Ripoll, Spain since he was four years old. He was the driver of the van that killed 13 people on La Rambla. He initially fled the scene of the attack on La Rambla through the Mercat de la Boqueria, then hijacked a car near the Zona Universitària station, stabbing the driver, Pau Pérez, to death. On 21 August, police caught up with him in Subirats, a village near Barcelona. He was wearing a fake suicide vest and shouted "Allahu Akbar" before police shot and killed him.
According to police sources, his identity documents were found in the second van, which was intercepted by Catalan police in Vic. His mother told the press that her son had been brainwashed by the imam Abdelbaki Es Satty.
Houssaine Abouyaaqoub
Houssaine Abouyaaqoub, aged 19, was the brother of Younes Abouyaaqoub and one of the attackers killed in Cambrils in the early hours of 18 August. He was a deliveryman for a kebab restaurant in Ripoll. Both Abouyaaqoub brothers were first cousins of Mohamed and Omar Hychami.
Moussa Oukabir
Moussa Oukabir was 17 at the time of the attack. He was shot and killed by police after the Cambrils attack.
The Fiat Talento
The Fiat Talento () is a light commercial vehicle produced by the Italian automaker Fiat, first sold in 1981. It is offered in two non consecutive generations.
*First generation (1989–1993): short wheelbase version of the Fiat Ducato.
*Second g ...
van used in the La Rambla attack had been rented using the ID of Oukabir's brother who told police that Moussa Oukabir had stolen his ID.
Moussa Oukabir had been living legally in Spain since 2005. In 2014 and 2015, he played futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football.
Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...
(a form of indoor football) for the local Ripoll youth team.[Mudo Deportivo: Dos terroristas en el equipo juvenil del Ripoll]
In 2015, when asked on the social media website Kiwi what he would do in his first day as king of the world, he responded, "Kill the infidels and only spare Muslims who follow the religion." Moussa's brother has told the judge that Moussa had increased his prayer frequency, chided him for not spending time with Muslims only, and had told him that Muslims have to do "jihad, which implies war."
Said Aallaa
Said Aallaa, 19, was born in Naour, Morocco. He had been living in Ribes de Freser, Spain, a village near Ripoll.
He was shot and killed by police after the Cambrils attack. ''La Vanguardia'' reported that Aallaa's social media contained photographs of firearms and that his religiosity was evidenced by his membership in Islamic study groups. Said had left a note in his room apologising for the harm he was about to cause.
Youssef Aallaa
Aalla's death in the explosion at Alcanar was later confirmed by police from DNA at the explosion site. Like all the other suspects, Youssef was born in Morocco. Youssef was a brother of Said Aallaa. Their father said Youssef attended the mosque.
Mohamed Hychami
Mohamed Hychami, aged 24 was born in Mrirt, Morocco. He was the cousin of Younes Abouyaaqoub, the driver of the van in the La Rambla attack. He was in the Audi used in the Cambrils attack and was shot and killed by police there. Hychami's mother told the media that Mohamed had said he was leaving on vacation and would return in a week.
Omar Hychami
Omar Hychami was 21, and was born in Mrirt, Morocco. He was the brother of fellow attacker Mohamed Hychami, and the cousin of the Rambla van driver Younes Abouyaaqoub. He worked for an agricultural construction sector
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...
.
Abdelbaki Es Satty
Abdelbaki Es Satty was a 44-year-old imam in Ripoll who was born in Morocco in 1973 and arrived in Spain in 2002. He was convicted of drug smuggling in 2014 and was to be deported from Spain, but Es Satty claimed deportation violated his human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
and he remained in Spain. A successful asylum application in November 2014 facilitated him moving freely in the 26 EU countries of the Schengen area. On 21 August, he was confirmed to have died in the accidental explosion in Alcanar on 16 August. As the imam thought to have been important in radicalising the other terrorists, he has been considered the "mastermind" of the planned attacks.
Es Satty had been renting a room in the house for four months. Es Satty, who had been employed as imam at the Ripoll mosque since 2015, quit "abruptly" in June. He had also stayed in Belgium for approximately three months in 2016, where he had been searching for work, including in Vilvoorde. Investigators believe the imam might be aligned with the Salafist movement, but this might not be unusual, as one in three Islamic prayer centers in Catalonia is.
He has been described as "unfailingly courteous and studiously discreet", betraying no radicalism in his appearance and interactions with those who did not know him, and training those in his terrorist cell to also lead double lives.
Arrests
Police arrested four men in connection with the attacks. Three of the men were arrested in Ripoll: the owner of the car used in the Cambrils attack, the brother of Moussa Oukabir, and a third man. In Alcanar, 20-year-old Mohamed Houli Chemlal, who survived the Alcanar explosion, was also arrested. Mohamed Houli Chemlal and Driss Oukabir have been charged with membership of a terror organisation and murder, with Mohamed also being charged with possession of explosives. Both were found to be guilty by the Audiencia Nacional
The Audiencia Nacional (; en, National Court) is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those ...
in 2021, although being acquitted of terrorist homicide charges. By 24 August 2017, two of the suspects, Salh El Karib and Mohamed Aalla, had been released on certain conditions, including that they hand over their passports.
ISIL inspiration
The ISIL-linked Amaq News Agency claimed the attack was carried out in response to the call for targeting states in the anti-ISIL coalition, of which Spain is a member, contributing about 400 soldiers training Iraqi Armed Forces
The Iraqi Armed Forces ( ar, القوات المسلحة العراقية romanized: ''Al-Quwwat Al-Musallahah Al-Iraqiyyah'') ( Kurdish: هێزە چەکدارەکانی عێراق) are the military forces of the Republic of Iraq. They consist ...
and Iraqi Police forces.
''The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' portrayed the motivation for this 2017 attack in Spain as rather 'less obvious', Spain being 'a minor player in the campaign against ISIS and other groups', though admittedly Spain contributed 150 soldiers to Operation Serval fighting Islamic militants in Mali, and in online propaganda linked to ISIL the Sagrada Família
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, shortened as the Sagrada Família, is an unfinished church in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by ...
basilica was suggested as a possible target and ISIL was suggested to have boasted about recovering the Islamic lands of Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
.
Reactions
Domestic
Mossos d'Esquadra
The ''Mossos d'Esquadra'' (; en, Squad), also known as the ''Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya'' and informally as ''Mossos'', is the autonomous police force responsible for law enforcement in Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia.
...
, the police force of Catalonia, launched Operation Cage to locate the perpetrators. All public events in Barcelona were cancelled, and both Carles Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. Since 2019 he has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). A former mayor of Girona, Puigdemont served as President of Catalo ...
, the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and Ada Colau, the Mayor of Barcelona, cancelled their holidays to return to the city and take part in crisis management. Likewise, Prime Minister of Spain
The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government ( es, link=no, Presidente del Gobierno), is the head of government of Spain. The office was established in its current form by the Constitution of Spain, Constitution of 1978 a ...
Mariano Rajoy
Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...
cancelled his holidays and travelled to Barcelona with the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría
María Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría Antón (born 10 June 1971) is a Spanish former politician of the People's Party who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain and Minister of the Presidency from 2011 to 2018. She was member of the Congress ...
, and Juan Ignacio Zoido, the Spanish Minister of the Interior. Spain declared three days of mourning.
The day after the attacks, a minute's silence led by Catalan President Carles Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. Since 2019 he has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). A former mayor of Girona, Puigdemont served as President of Catalo ...
, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and King Felipe VI of Spain
Felipe VI (;,
* eu, Felipe VI.a,
* ca, Felip VI,
* gl, Filipe VI, . Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. He is the son of former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and ...
was observed at Plaça de Catalunya, which ended with applause and chants of "No tinc por" ("I am not afraid"). During the following days candles and flowers were left at the Joan Miró mosaic at La Rambla, in memory of the victims. The King and Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
also left a wreath in the name of the Crown.
On 26 August 2017, a large crowd marched down the Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona in a protest against the terror attacks. The march was called by the city council and Catalan government. Some people booed the King of Spain and displayed signs blaming the Head of State for the Spanish arms sales. Other demonstrators displayed Spanish and Catalan flags.
On 10 September 2017, the security and emergency services were awarded the Medal of Honour of the Catalan Parliament (Medalla d'Honor del Parlament de Catalunya). With this medal the Catalan Parliament
The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 mem ...
recognises the dedication, effort, and courage of the Mossos d'Esquadra
The ''Mossos d'Esquadra'' (; en, Squad), also known as the ''Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya'' and informally as ''Mossos'', is the autonomous police force responsible for law enforcement in Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia.
...
, Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona
The Guàrdia Urbana (English: ''Urban Guard'') is the municipal police force for the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
History
Originally it was formed in November 1843 as the "Municipal Guard". Although in 1907 it became the "Urban Guard". ...
, Local Police of Cambrils, and the Emergency Services. The Major of the Catalan Police, Josep Lluís Trapero Álvarez, collected the award and made a speech mourning the victims.
International
Many world leaders reacted to the events, condemning the attacks and expressing shock and solidarity with Spain, as well as offering support.
News sources asked whether the attack would affect the vote in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum
An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Autonomous communities of Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and cal ...
.
Aftermath
Several days after the attack, islamophobic incidents occurred in Sevilla
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
, Logroño
Logroño () is the capital of the province of La Rioja, situated in northern Spain. Traversed in its northern part by the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of passage, such as the Camino de Santiago. Its borders were disputed b ...
and Granada.
The Interior Ministry and the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía recommended the installation of bollards
A bollard is a sturdy, short, vertical post. The term originally referred to a post on a ship or quay used principally for mooring boats. It now also refers to posts installed to control road traffic and posts designed to prevent automotive v ...
, but the Generalitat
Generalitat (, literally in English 'Generality') is the name of two major medieval and early modern political institutions and their modern-day analogues in Kingdom of Spain. The ancient Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Valencia were ...
chose to increase the presence of police officers instead.
Threat to Spain and Gibraltar
On the night of 23 August 2017, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
uploaded a video praising the perpetrators of the attack and warning of more violence if the military actions against them in Syria and Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
did not end, and threatening Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
with an atomic bomb. The language used was Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
. They also threatened to recreate al-Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
as a caliphate
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
and take revenge for the Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
who died at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition ( es, Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition ( es, Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand ...
.
The first author of the video was identified as Abu Lais Al Qurtubí (''el Cordobés'' in Spanish) or Abu Laiz al Qurtubi, named Muhammad Yasin Ahram Pérez, Tomasa Pérez's oldest son, who converted to Islam after her marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
to the Moroccan Abdelah Ahram. He said "If you can’t make the hegira (journey) to the Islamic State, carry out jihad where you are; jihad doesn’t have borders. Allah willing, Al Andalus will become again what it was, part of the caliphate. Spanish Christians, don’t forget the Muslim blood spilt during the Spanish inquisition. We will take revenge for your massacre, the one you are carrying out now against Islamic State". The hooded author has been identified as Abu Salman Al-Andalus or Abu Salman al-Andalusí (''el andaluz''). Pérez stated: "We hope that Allah accepts the sacrifice of our brothers in Barcelona. Our war with you will continue until the world ends."
The threatening video to Gibraltar was published by Abu Albara Bin Malik and spread by Al Wafa
Al Wafa is an Islamic charity listed in Executive Order 13224 as an entity that supports terrorism.
United States intelligence officials state that it was founded in Afghanistan by Adil Zamil Abdull Mohssin Al Zamil,
Abdul Aziz al-Matrafi and ...
.[ The threatening video was produced in Wilayat Jair, ]Deir Ezzor
, population_urban =
, population_density_urban_km2 =
, population_density_urban_sq_mi =
, population_blank1_title = Ethnicities
, population_blank1 =
, population_blank2_title = Religions
, population_blank2 =
...
, Syria. According to Saharaui journalist Bachir Mohamed Lahsen, terrorists only publish threats for propagandistic use and they should not be taken seriously.
As a response, Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
users created an Internet meme based on the message by Pérez.
Verdict
In May 2021, the National Audience court sentenced three members of the jihadist organization which committed the attacks in 2017. Two of the accused, Mohamed Houli Chemlal and Driss Oukabir, were sentenced to an upwards of 53 and 46 years in prison respectively, the third, Said Ben Iazza, to 8 years in prison for the crime of collaboration. They were also banned from approaching the town of Alcanar, where they prepared the attacks.
2022 statements by José Manuel Villarejo
In January 2022, former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, appeared to suggest that the Spanish authorities knew of Younes Abouyaaquob's plans ahead of time and used it to hamstring the Catalonian Independence movement, prompting Catalan president Pere Aragonès
Pere Aragonès i Garcia (; born 16 November 1982) is a Catalan lawyer and politician from Spain, serving as the President of the Government of Catalonia since 22 May 2021. He previously served between 2018 and 2021 as Vice President and Ministe ...
to call for an investigation. Many have dismissed the allegations as a conspiracy theory.
In popular media
In 2020, Catalan journalist Anna Teixidor published a book about the attacks titled ''Sense por de morir: Els silencis del 17-A.'' The book was published in Spanish and Catalan.
A three-part docuseries ''800 Meters
The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...
'' about the attacks and the police investigation was released on Netflix on 25 March 2022. The series was directed by Elías León.
See also
* 2017 in Spain
* List of terrorist incidents in August 2017
* Timeline of Barcelona
* 1987 Hipercor bombing
The Hipercor bombing was a car bomb attack by the Basque separatist organisation ETA, which was classified as a terrorist group. It took place on 19 June 1987 at the Hipercor shopping centre on Avinguda Meridiana, Barcelona, Spain. The bombing k ...
* 2008 Barcelona terror plot
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barcelona attacks
2010s in Barcelona
2017 in Catalonia
2017 murders in Spain
2017 road incidents in Europe
August 2017 crimes in Europe
August 2017 events in Spain
Baix Camp
Crime in Barcelona
Events in Barcelona
Explosions in 2017
Explosions in Spain
Islamic terrorism in Spain
Islamic terrorist incidents in 2017
La Rambla, Barcelona
Mass murder in 2017
Mass murder in Spain
Road incidents in Spain
Stabbing attacks in Spain
Terrorist incidents in Spain in 2017
Terrorist incidents in Spain
Terrorist incidents involving vehicular attacks
Vehicular rampage in Europe