Barcelona van attacker identified

UPDATE: Catalan regional police say they have shot dead the suspected driver of the van used in Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain. According to authorities, Younes Abouyaaqoub was wearing what appeared to be a belt with explosives when he was killed in Subirats, 28 miles west of Barcelona.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (10:12 a.m.): Spanish authorities on Monday identified the driver of the van used in Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona as 22-year-old Moroccan Younes Abouyaaqoub. Police said the suspect is the only member remaining at large from the 12-man Islamic extremist cell that killed 15 people and injured more than 120 others in multiple attacks in Spain last week. Police say they have “scientific evidence” that shows Abouyaaqoub drove the van through Barcelona’s Las Ramblas promenade. After the van attack, Abouyaaqoub stole a car and stabbed its owner to death. Minutes later he rammed the car through a police checkpoint, running over a police officer. Police found the abandoned car and its owner’s dead body 2 miles from the checkpoint, but Abouyaaqoub was nowhere to be found. The terror cell later carried out another attack in the coastal town of Cambrils, killing one other person. Police shot and killed the five suspects involved in that attack and have arrested four other members of the cell. Islamic State has claimed credit for both attacks. Two of the extremists are believed to have died in an explosion on Wednesday in a house in Alcanar, where they had been preparing explosives.