30 August, 2017
A jihadist cell that killed 16 people in a double attack in Catalonia earlier this month managed to evade controls specifically meant to detect potential threats, Spain's interior minister said on Monday, promising to review procedures.
The perpetrators of the terrorist attacks that hit Barcelona and Cambrils are Moroccans who were raised in Spain, acknowledged Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido who paid a short visit to Rabat Tuesday for talks with Moroccan officials to strengthen bilateral counterterrorism cooperation.
Moroccan police arrested the man in the city of Casablanca, the source said, without giving further details.
The Moroccan supplier had given the terrorist cell around 120 canisters of butane gas, which they had stocked in a house in the southern Spanish town of Alcanar.
It's believed the group accidentally ignited the gas on August 16 - the night before the Barcelona attack - destroying the house where they were staying.
The remaining attackers then chose to launch a auto ramming attack along Barcelona's Rambla Avenue and later mount a similar assault in the resort town of Cambrils. The source did not confirm that.
"Thanks to permanent contact and collaboration between the two countries, Moroccan security services have carried out two arrests here in Morocco linked to the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils", Zoido said, who was visiting his counterpart in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, reported DW.
The terror cell behind Spain's deadly twin attacks was dismantled a fortnight ago and consisted of 12 young men, many of whom were Moroccan who were reportedly acting on behalf of Daesh.
He lauded the high level of cooperation between Moroccan and Spanish security services in the wake of the Catalonia attacks, adding that Moroccan experts are contributing to the ongoing investigations.
Six of the attackers were shot dead by police and two died in the explosion at the house in Alcanar.
Following the Barcelona terror attacks, numerous western media outlets blamed Morocco, portraying it as a "breeding ground" for terrorism.
Eight other people were wounded in the attack in the south-western coastal city of Turku, which is being investigated as Finland's first terrorism-related assault.