Barcelona Attack Perpetrators Were Preparing Major Attacks on Historical Sites

One of the suspects in last week's attacks in Barcelona, Spain, confessed that their team intended to carry out larger attacks on the country's historical sites. According to AFP, 21-year-old Mohammed Houli Shmallal told a Spanish judge that he had been aware of the attack plans for two months. In the attack that took place last Thursday on Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona, 13 people were killed and over 100 were injured. About eight hours later, a similar attack occurred in the coastal city of Cambrils, resulting in one death. Police shot dead five attackers, some of whom were wearing fake explosive vests. These four individuals who have been tried are the only suspects who survived their deadly attack in Barcelona. At the end of the court session on Tuesday, Mohammed Houli Shmallal, along with 27-year-old Driss Oukabir, was transferred to detention on charges related to terrorist activities. However, a third individual, whose vehicle was used in the Cambrils attack, was conditionally released due to insufficient evidence. The judge announced that a decision would be made in three days regarding the fourth suspect, who was calling people from his shop to the outside. The judge rejected the prosecutor's request to charge all four with terrorism. Mohammed Houli Shmallal, who is Spanish, told the judge that the group members were preparing for a larger attack using bombs on historical sites. He stated that an imam who was a member of this group intended to carry out a suicide attack. Spanish detectives say that 12 people frequented the attackers' house, which contained a bomb-making workshop, one of whom was the imam. Investigations are ongoing regarding the role of Abdelbaki Es Satty, the imam of the small town of Ripoll in the Pyrenees, who is said to have radicalized many local youths. It is reported that this imam was killed in the explosion of the bomb-making workshop. Mohammed Houli Shmallal was on the porch of the house during the explosion and was injured. On Sunday, August 20, the Spanish police announced that they had discovered 120 gas canisters in the bomb-making workshop of the recent attackers in Spain. The regional police chief of Barcelona also revealed that traces of acetone peroxide, a very powerful explosive, were found in the suspects' home in Alcanar, 200 kilometers from Barcelona. According to the Spanish police, a day before the Thursday attacks, their bomb-making workshop exploded due to an accident; thus, the attackers decided to carry out their operations using a vehicle instead of a bomb, leading to the attack on Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona.