Cambrils

An Islamist militant cell that last week used a van to kill 13 people in Barcelona had planned one or several major bomb attacks, possibly against churches or monuments, one suspect told a court on Aug. 22, according to sources close to the investigation.

The hunt for the driver who killed 13 people in last week's attack in Barcelona has been extended across Europe, Catalan officials say, quoted by BBC.

Police say they have now confirmed the driver's identity, but would not reveal his name.

But Catalan official Joaquim Forn told local radio: "Everything suggests the van driver is Younes Abouyaaqoub".

Three people intentionally rammed a car into a group of people in the town of Assenois in Belgium’s southern Luxembourg province, leaving four injured, local media reported Sunday.

A 12-strong terror cell that carried out two attacks in Spain this week had collected 120 gas canisters and was planning to use them in vehicle attacks, Spanish police say, quoted by BBC. 

Canisters were found at a house said to be used by the cell that blew up in the town of Alcanar on Wednesday night.

Spain will maintain its security alert level at 4, one notch below the maximum level which would signal an attack was imminent, after two deadly attacks in the northeastern region of Catalonia this week, Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said, cited by Reuters.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Cambrils, Spain, in an official communique.
It had already claimed the prior attack in Barcelona but put out an official statement later encompassing both atrocities, which police in Spain had been treating as linked.

The suspects in the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils were planning one or more bigger attacks than those that were carried out, police say, reported BBC. 

Catalonia's police chief said blasts in a town south of Barcelona on Wednesday deprived the plotters of bomb material, forcing them to carry out simpler attacks using vehicles to ram crowds.

Spanish police announced on Friday that they killed five persons in the city of Cambrils and in this way prevented a new terrorist attack.

It would have been the second, less than eight hours after the one in Barcelona on Thursday, when 13 people were killed and more than 100 were injured.

Spanish police say they have killed five suspected terrorists in the town of Cambrils in a second vehicle attack, after an earlier one in Barcelona, reported BBC. 

The men, wearing explosive belts, were linked to the first attack, police say.

Spanish police say they have killed five suspected terrorists in the town of Cambrils to stop a vehicle attack, after an earlier one in Barcelona, reported BBC.

The men, wearing explosive belts, were linked to the first attack, police say.