Third terror attack rocks Spain

UPDATE: The family of American Jared Tucker, 42, confirmed on Friday that he was among those killed in the deadly truck attack in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday. “We just got the text—Jared’s body was identified at the morgue by his wife,” Daniel Tucker, his father, told the New York Daily News. “It’s just something we really just don’t understand. I don’t know what else to say.” Tucker and his wife, Heidi Nunes, were in Barcelona celebrating their first wedding anniversary.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (08/18/17, 12:55 p.m.): At least one American citizen is among those dead following the terrorist attacks in Spain, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday. He added that U.S. officials are still confirming the death and injuries of others. Tillerson did not specify which attack killed the American or the name of the victim. Jared Tucker, 42, of California is still missing following the attacks. He and his wife were in Spain celebrating their first year of marriage and were separated while walking on the popular Barcelona tourist street La Rambla during the attack. Spanish officials on Friday confirmed the back-to-back vehicle attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils were planned by an Islamic terror cell operating from a house in the Spanish coastal town of Alcanar. They said the attacks could have been deadlier had the cell’s base not been destroyed by an apparently accidental explosion Wednesday that killed one person. Police suspect the terrorists were planning a bombing or gas attack but resorted to vehicles after Wednesday’s explosion.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (08/18/17, 8:01 a.m.): Police shot and killed five suspected terrorists Friday in the coastal town of Cambrils, Spain, 74 miles south of Barcelona, in the third terror attack to hit the country since Wednesday. In the latest attack, one person died and seven others, including a police officer, sustained injuries when an Audi A3 deliberately plowed into a group of tourists. Police then killed the five attackers who were wearing fake suicide belts. Authorities have linked the Cambrils incident to another attack hours earlier in Barcelona, where a man drove a van into pedestrians in the city’s Las Ramblas district, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. Authorities said the dead included one person from Belgium and two from Italy. The injured are from nearly two-dozen different countries, including Australia, Taiwan, Germany, and France. Police have identified the suspected van driver as 18-year-old Moussa Oukabir. Police had earlier arrested three people including Oukabir’s cousin, Driss Oukabir, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, in connection to the attack. Moussa Oukabir is still at large. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Barcelona attack. An explosion Wednesday night in the southwestern town of Alcanar killed one person and injured seven others. Police are investigating whether an Islamic extremist cell staged the three attacks after police found numerous bottles of butane gas at the Alcanar explosion site. Police believe the terrorists were preparing explosives at the property. Thousands gathered in Barcelona’s main square Friday, including King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, to observe a moment of silence for the victims. Afterward, the crowd chanted, “I am not afraid! I am not afraid!” in Catalan amid applause.