ZCZC
BFF-34
SPAIN-ATTACK-ANNIVERSARY-WRAP
One year on, Spain remembers victims of jihadist twin attacks
BARCELONA, Aug 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A year after jihadist attacks in
Barcelona and a nearby seaside resort killed 16 people, Spain’s King Felipe
VI will on Friday preside over a ceremony in memory of the victims.
Fourteen people died — including two young children aged three and seven
— and over 100 were injured in the Barcelona van attack on the city’s most
famous street, Las Ramblas, on August 17, 2017.
During his escape, the 22-year-old Moroccan attacker also stabbed to death
a young man before stealing his car.
Hours later, a car carrying five of his accomplices sped into Cambrils
some 120 kilometres (75 miles) south.
The five occupants of the Audi A3 jumped out and went on a stabbing spree,
killing a woman, before they were shot dead by police.
The king, his wife, Queen Letizia, and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will
on Friday join families of the victims in Barcelona for the commemoration at
the Plaza Catalunya, near Las Ramblas.
“We have not given up on our values and beliefs, which one year later are
stronger than ever,” Barcelona mayor Ada Colau said on the eve of the
anniversary, her eyes welling with tears as she read out the names of the 16
victims.
“We are, and we will be a city of peace, a courageous city that fights
terrorism with love,” she added.
Before the ceremony, which will begin at 10:30 am (0830 GMT) and not
include speeches, flowers will be laid on a pavement mosaic in the centre of
Las Ramblas designed by Barcelona-born artist Joan Miro — the spot where the
van came to a stop.
– ‘Thought I was dying’ –
“I don’t remember anything about the attacker, I only saw him stabbing me.
He left the knife stuck in my face, it plunged 15 centimetres (six inches)
into my head…. I honestly thought I was dying,” said Ruben Guinazu, 55, one
of the victims of the Cambrils attack.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks but
investigators have not found any evidence that the cell of young men who
carried them out had any international links.
Instead investigators believe an imam in the mountain town of Ripoll
located about 100 kilometres north of Barcelona indoctrinated a group of
youths of Moroccan origin.
The cell the imam formed was making bombs at an abandoned house some 200
kilometres from Barcelona which police believe they intended to use to strike
the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, the city Camp Nou stadium or the
Eiffel Tower in Paris.
But the explosives they were using accidently went off on August 16,
prompting the cell to improvise a vehicle attack similar to the ones carried
out in other cities such as Nice and London.
– King jeered –
The attacks shook Spain although they soon became overshadowed by tensions
over Catalonia’s independence push in October.
A year later these tensions are resurfacing due to the king’s presence at
the ceremony in Barcelona, the capital of the Catalonia region.
The king — who adopted a hard line stance against Catalonia’s separatist
drive — was jeered by some separatists at a protest in Barcelona against the
attacks.
This time around separatist organisations have not called for protests
against the king but are staging their own ceremonies in honour of the
victims to avoid him.
Families of the victims have asked for the authorities to set aside
political disagreements on the anniversary.
“We ask politicians to call a truce,” said Robert Manrique of victims’
support group UAVAT.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1120 hrs