Barcelona attack – Revealed: The chilling link between the sleepy town of Cambrils and the September 11 attack
Five terrorists wearing fake suicide belts were shot dead in the seaside resort after injuring seven in SECOND car ramming attack
THE Spanish town of Cambrils has previous links to terrorism after infamously hosting a meeting between a pilot in the 9/11 attacks and a notorious Al-Qaeda plotter.
Police shot and killed five people wearing fake bomb belts who staged a car ramming attack in the seaside resort hours after a van ploughed into pedestrians on a busy Barcelona promenade.
Authorities said the back-to-back vehicle attacks were connected and the work of a large terrorist group.
Amazingly it is the second time the quiet town has been linked to international terrorism after Mohammed Atta, who piloted the first hijacked airliner into the World Trade Center, visited Cambrils before the atrocity.
He drove from Madrid to the fishing port after collecting fellow conspirator Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and they are thought to have spent a night at a hotel there.
Egyptian-born Atta, 33, was the pilot of the first airliner the terrorists crashed into the twin towers in 2001.
Bin al-Shibh was allegedly originally selected by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to be one of the September 11 hijackers and was later accused by the US authorities of making a "martyr video" in preparation for the attack.
But he was unable to obtain a US visa and instead helped find flight schools for the hijackers in the US and arrange financial transactions in support of the terror operation.
He met Atta, who studied in Germany in the 1990s and learned to fly in Florida, at Reus airport near Tarragona in July 2001 and they drove together to Cambrils, where they are believed to have stayed for a night in a local hotel.
They then moved on to an unknown location where they are believed to have spent several days planning the 9/11 atrocity.
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Yemini Bin al-Shibh was later arrested in 2002 in Pakistan and taken to Guantanamo Bay.
He is being held by the US authorities, accused of being a "key facilitator" for the September 11 attacks.
The New York attack killed nearly 3,000 people and left more than 6,000 more injured.
- WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR
- At 5pm on Thursday, a white Fiat van ploughed into a crowd in tourist hotspot Las Ramblas in Barcelona
- At least 13 people were killed and 130 more injured as the driver mowed down innocents along a 500m stretch of the packed pedestrian area
- The driver then fled the carnage on foot and is still believed to be on the run
- Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the van attack was a result of 'jihadist terrorism' and ISIS has since claimed responsibility
- At least three men have been arrested in connection with the attack including Driss Oukabir - a 28-year-old Moroccan who is believed to have rented the van.His brother Moussa Oukabir, 18, stole his ID
- Victims are from 34 countries, with one Belgian national confirmed to have died. Twenty-six of the injured are French, three are Italian and a seven-year-old Australian boy is feared to be among the victims
- Eight hours later, one person was killed and seven injured after five terrorists carry out second terror attack in Cambrils - 68 miles from Barcelona
- Jihadists wearing fake suicide vests rammed an Audi A3 into pedestrians and were shot dead by police when the car flipped
- Officials are linking the attacks with an explosion that killed one person at a house 124 miles away from Las Ramblas on Wednesday