Thousands of tourists and locals defy twisted ISIS and flood Las Ramblas days after horror terror attack
THOUSANDS of locals and tourists defied twisted ISIS terrorists flooded Las Ramblas just days after 14 were killed in a horrifying van attack.
Crowds filled the pedestrianised street in Barcelona city centre today and went about their daily business - the only indication of Thursday's events was a floral memorial to the victims.
At 5pm on Thursday, a white Fiat van ploughed into a crowd in tourist hot-spot 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.
Five terrorists have been shot by police and four arrested. The suspected driver of the van Youssef Alla is said to be on the run.
The hashtag #NoTincPor, "we are not afraid" in Catalan, has been trending ever since Friday as Catalans show they will not be cowed by the terror attack.
While people in Barcelona joined together to heal, far-right activists tried to stir up tensions by defacing mosques in Seville and Grenada, in the south of Spain, with racist slogans.
The Seville Mosque Foundation's centre was targeted with anti-Muslim slogans including "Killers, you're going to pay". Other messages included threats to behead Muslims with a machete.
A mosque in Granada was attacked with flares by a gang of around 12 people in what has also been described as a racist' attack.
As hundreds gathered together this morning for a remembrance mass in the Sagrada Familia cathedral in tribute to the lives lost in the double terror attacks, it was revealed that 17-year-old Moussa Oukabir had spent 10 days in his parents' homeland of Morocco before the horrific van rampage.
Oukabir, who posted online two years ago that he wanted to "kill the infidels", is thought to have made his farewell trip to Morocco from August 3 to 13.
The teen was just one of the terrorists shot dead by police during a second terror attack in the seaside town of Cambrils.
cited a police source as saying: “Given his suicidal profile, he went to say goodbye to his family, a pre-requisite to become a Jihad hero.”
At least 14 people were killed and at least 100 others injured in the double terror attacks that left Spain rocked to the core.
A mass was held on Sunday morning for those killed in the attacks, with royals King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia among the hundreds to pay their respects.
Crowds were brought to tears during the service, which was held at the city's famous Sagrada Familia - a place feared to have been intended as a target by the terrorists.
Cardinal Juan José Omella, the Archbishop of Barcelona, called for unity, saying: "We will overcome fear."
He added: "The union makes us strong, the division corrodes us and destroys us."
It comes as the father of two other terrorists admitted he was baffled by the “damage” the terrorists had caused.
Omar and Mohamed Hychami were killed in Cambrils after the massacre on Las Ramblas on Thursday.
Their dad Hechami Gasi appeared to point the finger at Islamic preacher Abdelbaki Es Satty today as he claimed they must have been brainwashed because they were "good boys."
He told Catalan daily La Vanguardia from his home in Ripoll: “I don’t how they could have committed such evil, so much damage.
“I don’t know what they did to my boys’ heads. I can assure you they were good boys, normal boys.
“One worked in an important company in the area called Conforsa and the other was a welder in the town of Vic.
“I don’t understand what has happened . I don’t know what to feel. They are my sons but look at the evil they have done.”
Said Aalla, 18, another of the terrorists believed to have been killed in Cambrils, was made class delegate at his school because of the "trust and confidence" he commanded among his peers, it emerged today.
Well-respected Catalan daily El Periodico published a picture of him as a primary school pupil - smiling with a toothy grin as he stood alongside classmates in a blue school top over his jeans.
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A former pupil of at the school of Omar Hychami and Mohamed Houli, 21, from Morocco, who has been named as one of the suspects under arrest after being injured in an explosion at a house in Alcanar 125 miles south west of Barcelona where bombs were being prepared, told the paper: “I remember them speaking among themselves in Arabic.
“We used to say to them, ‘Hey, speak in Catalan’ but always in a jokey way because they never gave us any cause for suspicion, quite the contrary.
“They were just normal classmates at that time. But now you can’t help asking yourself what on earth they were talking about, because of the barbaric things people say they have done.”
Today it was claimed the Catalan terror attacks were organised from Syria, using "catalyst agents"; who are now filling the gap left by the "current inability" of European-based terror cell chiefs to travel to the Middle East to take orders from Islamic Sate leaders.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the the deadly Las Ramblas terror attack.
Respected Spanish daily La Razon, citing anti-terrorist sources, said: “An indeterminate number of ‘catalysers’ are now in countries like France, Belgium or Germany and their presence in Spain has not been ruled out.
“What experts have guaranteed is that at least one member of the ‘Las Ramblas cell’ spoke to one of these individuals who gave them instructions on how and where they should commit the terror attacks.
“They also showed them how to make the explosive TATP that was being prepared, given that the jihadist leaders have discovered that with the manuals and videos that are out there online, people don’t learn enough.”
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