Spain attacks: Imam had links to 2004 Madrid bomber

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.
:: Imam's home raided by Barcelona terror police
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.
Rachid Aglif (C) was one of the 28 suspects
accused of the 2004 Madrid train bombings
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.
:: Barcelona terror police identify two bodies in
terror-linked house
Spanish officials are facing increasingly
uncomfortable questions about why those involved
were not on the radar of the intelligence services.
Police say their efforts to track down the fugitive
terror suspects are being frustrated by their inability
to identify human remains found at the site of an
explosion at the plotters' bomb factory, south of
Barcelona.
Damage caused by the explosion at a property in
Alcanar. Pic: @bomberscat
The huge mound of rubble where the house in the
coastal town of Alcanar once stood, is now at the
centre of the ongoing investigation.
:: Barcelona attack: Imam's home raided as police
hunt terror mastermind
Police here had initially believed the blast was a non-
suspicious gas explosion.
For days, forensic teams have been sifting through
the remains of the property in Alcanar.
The premature explosion here on Wednesday should
have triggered a vital early warning that a massive
attack was imminent, but initially, the clues here
were missed.
Forensic teams have been sifting through the
remains of the property in Alcanar
The authorities only realised it was part of the terror
plot when evidence recovered after the Barcelona
attack linked back to the address in Alcanar.
Investigators have discovered the remains of three
people in the rubble but have not yet been able to
identify them.
And that is complicating their ongoing terrorist
manhunt, as they are still not exactly sure who is on
the run.
They do believe the man suspected of driving the van
through Barcelona's Las Ramblas pedestrian
boulevard is still alive and at large.
:: Spanish terrorist network: Who are the attackers?
Younes Abouyaaqoub was pictured on a bank security
camera in the town of Ripoll, north of Barcelona, on
the day of the bomb factory explosion.
A picture said to show Younes Abouyaaqoub at
an ATM in Ripoll on the day before Barcelona
was attacked
Ripoll is around 200 miles away from the scene of
the blast here in Alcanar.
Locals told us that for months, groups of young men
who they describe as being of North African
appearance, would constantly come and go from this
property.
They often dropped off materials including gas
cylinders, yet their actions never aroused suspicion,
only curiosity.
And there are wider issues to address for intelligence
agencies here in Spain and beyond.
This was no lone-wolf endeavour. More than a dozen
plotters hatched their plans for more than a year.
Cristine Bolz lives just across the road from the villa,
and called the emergency services after the huge
explosion around 11.30pm on Wednesday.
Christine Bolz lives in a neighbouring house in
Alcanar
She told me she never believed the initial police
assertion that there was nothing suspicious about the
blast.
"We weren't really sure what it was, but something
really big had just happened. I doubted this was only
a gas explosion because to me it smelled like a
bomb," she said.
Despite the devastation, and the discovery of more
than a hundred gas cylinders amongst the rubble,
police told locals there was nothing to be concerned
about.
At the Hotel Carlos, Eli Beltri, who works behind the
main bar, said she had no reason to doubt officials.
She said: "At the moment of the blast, people
thought it was an accident, a gas cylinder that had
exploded. No one imagined anything different, like an
attack or a bomb, definitely not.
:: Spain terror: Who are the victims of Barcelona and
Cambrils attacks?
Eli Beltri lives in one of the neighbouring houses
in Alcanar
"Even on the next day, when the second bomb went
off by accident and the Barcelona attack took place,
no one made the connection between both events."
Some in the cell were also in Switzerland and France
for a time, where they are believed to have met with
other extremists, but their activities were apparently
never picked up by security agencies.
With uncertainty over how many of the remaining
plotters are still at large, armed police checkpoints
have been set up on main roads across northern
Spain and on the border with France.
Meanwhile, French newspaper Le Parisien reported
on Sunday night that the Audi A3 used in the
Cambrils attack was caught speeding in the Paris
region about a week ago.
Armed police checkpoints have been set up on
main roads across northern Spain
French investigators have not found a direct link
between the Spanish cell and France, Le Parisien
said, and are looking into the possibility the Audi
could have just been transiting through the France
when it was caught.
Spanish authorities say the main plot has been
dismantled, but with perhaps a handful of plotters still
on the loose, the threat here is certainly not over.

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