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At least thirteen dead as van hits crowds in Barcelona

RocknRola

RocknRola

Member
The only two known Portuguese victims were a grandmother(74) and her granddaughter(20) touring the Ramblas a mere two hours after arriving in the City... :/

There are no words to properly describe the amount of pain and suffering these things cause.

RIP to all the victims.
 
T

Tony Redgrave

Member
TTOOLL said:
Let me tell what I think is happening. We all who did it and why they did it. We've had lots of threads before that turned into a battle between people attacking Islamic terrorism and Islam itself and others defending the religion, trying to disconnect it from the attacks.

The results would be some people banned for islsmophobia and an endless discussion. So I think people here just don't bother anymore taking about the bigger picture.

People express their condolences, pay their respect and move on. The Spanish community is not big indeed but let's not forget that people from other 34 countries are among the victims.
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Fair enough. I wasn't trying to point fingers at anyone or anything, just lamenting how normalized this stuff has become. I agree that a 50 page thread discussion about terrorism isn't going to benefit anyone at this point.

Koren said:
I'm sorry if some of you feel it this way... Don't take the size of the thread as an indication about how much people care. I'm really sad for people there, it's just... I don't thing arguing about it will bring anything of values. But my thoughts are with Spain now...
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Thank you.
 
A

AcademicSaucer

Member
Saw this on reddit, the lebanese army tht is fighting ISIS right now raised the Spanish flag in a mountain they captured from ISIS

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D

demosthenes

Member
Funky Papa said:
This is an excellent timeline for those interested.

It looks like we lucked out big time. This wasn't a lone wolf attack at all. It was an actual terror cell with plans a, b, and c.

First they tried to rent a large truck and load it with gas containers in order to cause a massive explosion at the end of their run, but couldn't provide the permits and had to settle for two smaller vans. Then they fucked up the bombs and blew up their safe house. The terrorists driving the second van were later shot down, although they fatally stabbed a bystander and injured a number of people.

This could have been much, much worse.
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This is terrifying given how close I was too this.

Edit: That's awesome at the flag.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
45TwOHl.png


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.

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

Police are still hunting for the driver of the van that hit dozens of people on Barcelona's Las Ramblas, killing 13.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40990927

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Look at some those ages... 17 and 18 and involved in terrorism.
 
M

michaelius

Banned
TheVampire said:
So is this the new thing?

Replace bombs with ramming people down in cars?
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Sure it's pure logic - why risk trying to obtain bomb materials which are well tracked and protected and then find someone smart enough to put the bomb together when any idiot can drive a car and stealing car is super easy (or borrowing or buying some 10 years old junk).
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
michaelius said:
Sure it's pure logic - why risk trying to obtain bomb materials which are well tracked and protected and then find someone smart enough to put the bomb together when any idiot can drive a car and stealing car is super easy (or borrowing or buying some 10 years old junk).
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Or when they try with explosives...

9. Plan B was to load 2 smaller vans with explosives. That failed too. They didn't know how to prep the explosive & blew up house instead
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From FP's post.

Renting a truck or van and driving it into people requires very little expertise or any care handling explosives. You still see explosives attacks such as Manchester, but machetes and vehicles are obviously far easier to come across and use.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
The apparent ringleader of the Spain terror attacks had links to one of the 2004 Madrid bombers.

Officials have said while the men responsible for the twin attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils were not on the security services' radar, the apparent ringleader Abdelbaki es Satty did have extremist connections.

He went to prison five years ago for trafficking hashish from Morocco to Spain, and was locked up alongside Rachid Aglif, jailed for his role in the Madrid attacks.
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At least 191 people were killed and thousands were injured when an al Qaeda-linked terror cell detonated bombs on commuter trains during the morning rush hour, making it the worst terror attack in Spain's history.
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Es Satty's name also reportedly turned up in Operation Jackal, in which five extremists were convicted for recruiting young men around seaside towns south of Barcelona.

Es Satty and several of his fellow plotters had travelled between Spain and Morocco in recent months, as they worked on their attack plans.
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Spanish officials are facing increasingly uncomfortable questions about why those involved were not on the radar of the intelligence services.
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http://news.sky.com/story/spain-attacks-imam-had-links-to-2004-madrid-bomber-10998413

Yeah, well, no wonder.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
orava said:
These are basically children. Very easy to influence.
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Yeah, children are the easiest to indoctrinate hence why all religions go after them like wildfire. However, getting them prepped, ready and willing to be mass murderers and lose their own lives at such young ages is no small feat.

Police are still hunting for the driver across Europe

gD8utKz.png


Spanish police have confirmed the identity of the driver suspected of killing 13 people in last week's attack in Barcelona.

He is 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, officials said, and the manhunt has been extended across Europe.

Authorities earlier said they could not rule out the possibility that he had slipped across the border to France.
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Three images in El Pais newspaper allegedly show the man walking through La Boqueria market, wearing sunglasses, as he passes other people heading away from Las Ramblas.

Police say they are investigating the possibility that, some 90 minutes later, the suspect stabbed and killed a Spanish man and stole his car. He appears to have been alone at the time.

Two hours after the attack, 34-year-old Pau Pérez from Vila Franca was found dead in his vehicle. He is the 15th person confirmed dead following the two attacks.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40998300
 
N

Nevasleep

Member
Vastag said:
The police has found TATP in the Alcanar house, the same explosive that ISIS used in the Brussels airport bombing. I can't imagine the damage that they would have done with a truck full of that and gas bottles, taking into account that the explosions in the airport where the result of "only" a suitcase.
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Yep, so lucky. Could have been worse than Paris or Madrid if they detonated in the right place, like Las Ramblas.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
The chief suspect in last Thursday's Barcelona attack made his escape on foot to the outskirts of the city where he hijacked a car, Spanish police say.

CCTV footage in Spanish media appears to show him walking through a market district shortly after the attack.

A manhunt has been extended across Europe and police say he may be armed.

Some 90 minutes after mowing down dozens of people on the central Las Ramblas avenue, Abouyaaqoub fled to the city's university district, police say.

Abouyaaqoub is alleged to have hijacked the car before driving it through a police checkpoint and later abandoning the vehicle. Police say he may have crossed into France.

The male driver of the car, Pau Pérez, 34, from Vila Franca, was found stabbed to death in the back seat, becoming the 15th victim of the Barcelona bloodshed and a later attack in the resort of Cambrils.
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At a news conference on Monday, officials also revealed there were "strong indications" that an imam suspected of radicalising the young men who carried out the attacks had died in an explosion at a house in Alcanar, south of Barcelona, that was being used as a bomb factory.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40998300

More confirmation about the vehicle hijack and escape.
 
S

Spaced Harrier

Member
Yeah, indoctrinating into general religion is one thing... but to manage to turn children into willing suicidees..

They have to be clearly estranged from society and they only way to do that is segregation. Be it Muslim schools and after school Islamic schooling, to home schooling and trips abroad to be radicalised...

You would think this would be nearly impossible to do if they had schooled with and became friends with native Spaniard children. Who knows.

One thing that bugs me about the BBC is the phrase "so-called". Why is that in use?

If that is the name it us the name. They literally want to bring about an Islamic Caliphate.

Did they do the same with the IRA or ETA?
 
E

Emperor_Uriel

Member
They got him alive.

Police in Catalonia have reportedly arrested Younes Abouyaaqoub, identified the probable driver of the van that killed 13 people on Barcelona's Ramblas last week, as the manhunt zeroed in on him as the last remaining fugitive from the terrorist cell.

According to a Spanish reports, he was shot by police while wearing an explosives belt. It is unknown whether it was real or false.
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Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Yeah, it's not confirmed who it is yet

Police hunting the chief suspect in last Thursday's Barcelona van attack have shot dead a man in an area to the west of the city who appeared to be wearing an explosive belt.

The shooting is reported to have happened on a road in Subirats.

Earlier, police confirmed they were hunting for Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, suspected of driving a van into dozens of people on Las Ramblas.

Police have not confirmed if the dead man was Abouyaaqoub.

Media reports quoting police sources said the man targeted in Subirats shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest") when confronted.

The operation took place some 25 miles (40km) from Barcelona, where Thursday's attack on Las Ramblas killed 13.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41004603
 
S

Spaced Harrier

Member
Vastag said:
All I have read says that they were indeed integrated in their hometown, went to class to the local highschool, were friends with other local teenegers and several of them had normal jobs. That's why is baffling.
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I can't even fathom the job you have to do on someone then, to get them ready to die.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Vastag said:
All I have read says that they were indeed integrated in their hometown, went to class to the local highschool, were friends with other local teenegers and several of them had normal jobs. That's why is baffling.
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Just because you have a baseline for a decent life doesn't mean you're 'truly happy'. Most people go through life being unhappy even if they have friends, family and a job. Most people however don't get indoctrinated into believing a "cure" for their unhappiness is to go and martyr themselves and take out some of the heretics along the way to secure a "luxury afterlife". I've spoken about how low status males and those without prospects could quickly turn to an easy out and a promise of a better quality afterlife. But, some of the grand claims made can even influence and indoctrinate people who have it pretty decent all things considered. Who doesn't want to "impress" their God and be rewarded big time once they get into their eternal afterlife?

The existential angst the average human faces when pondering life does lead some to wanting to believe there is an afterlife so the lights don't go out permanently on death. Okay, we let most people believe privately whatever the hell they want even if there is zero evidence. What isn't okay however is using the idea of an afterlife to suggest killing others is the way in which your chosen God rewards you in said afterlife. That concept seemingly makes people do really fucking evil things, and at that, even teenagers of all people. The imams and radicals preaching anything remotely like those concepts to young minds let alone other adults need to be shut the fuck down and jailed for conspiracy to spread terrorist/violent propaganda.
 
T

tzare

Member
@mossos just confirmed that the man shot down was the fugitive terrorist that drove the van of the attack in la Rambla
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
Possible link with a terror threat here in Holland at the moment. Spanish police warned ours about a possible terror threat to a concert.

They found a van with Spanish plates with gas cylinders in the back. Spanish driver arrested. Police noticed him because he was driving back and forth multiple times.

(THE HAGUE, Netherlands) — A rock music venue in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam says it has cancelled a concert by American group Allah-Las because of a "terror threat."
Concert organizer Rotown said on Twitter that Wednesday night's concert at the Maassilo venue was cancelled on orders of police.
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http://time.com/4913088/allah-las-rotterdam-concert-canceled-terror-threat/
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
ClosingADoor said:
Possible link with a terror threat here in Holland at the moment. Spanish police warned ours about a possible terror threat to a concert.

They found a van with Spanish plates with gas cylinders in the back. Spanish driver arrested. Police noticed him because he was driving back and forth multiple times.


http://time.com/4913088/allah-las-rotterdam-concert-canceled-terror-threat/
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Jeez. Thank fuck that was prevented. Always a lot of loss of life when they hit a music venue/highly packed venue.
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
Audioboxer said:
Jeez. Thank fuck that was prevented. Always a lot of loss of life when they hit a music venue/highly packed venue.
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It's not sure yet if it was really going to be an attack. But it at least is very suspicious to have someone from Spain drive around like that after Spanish police tipped the local ones here. Investigation is still ongoing.
 
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