Imam thought to be "brains" behind Barcelona massacre

Police are suspecting an imam from the town of Ripoli, north of Barcelona, of the "brains" behind Thursday's terror attacks and has started an investigation of him, local media reported Sunday.

It is thought that the 45-year-old Abdelbaki es Satti, who is described by the El Mundo newspaper as "solitary, reserved and almost hermit like," is responsible for radicalizing the members of the terrorist cell, which carried out the attacks, leaving 14 people dead and more than 120 injured in Barcelona and Cambrils.

He was found left when Catalan regional police searched his flat in the wake of Thursday's attacks. It is unknown whether Satti is still at large or killed in an explosion late Wednesday, which destroyed a house in the town of Alcaner, south of Barcelona.

Investigators have discovered 20 butane gas bottles in the building and the current hypothesis is that terrorists were using the property while preparing an bigger attack in the region, possibly with Barcelona's emblematic Sagrada Familia church as one of the main targets.

However, the accidental explosion made them exposed before being able to carry out their original plan and forced them into a last-minute change of plan, which involved the attacks in Las Ramblas and Cambrils.

Satti spent almost two years in jail for drug trafficking and was released in January 2012. During his imprisonment, he was reported to develop a "special friendship" with Rachid Aglif, who was serving an 18-year sentence for his part in the Atocha train bombing in March 2004, which left more than 190 people dead in the south of Madrid.

Satti moved to Ripoli two years ago and reportedly spent his time between his home, a shared flat of just 30 square meters and a mosque.

A total of 14 fatalities occurred in the two terrorist attacks in the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Cambrils that also hurt about 126 people of 34 different nationalities.

Thirteen people were killed on Thursday afternoon in the popular Las Ramblas area of Barcelona when a white van zigzagged at high speed down the busy avenue thronged with tourists, knocking down pedestrians.

On early Friday morning, the 14th victim, a woman, was stabbed when five people jumped out of a car and began attacking people at random on the seaside promenade in Cambrils, a town south of Barcelona. Spanish police gunned down all five attackers. The woman died at hospital later on Friday. Six others were also injured in the attack.

Both attacks were carried out by a single terrorist cell made up of about 12 people, according to Spanish police.

Meanwhile, A lone police officer, who shot and killed four members of a terrorist cell in the second Spain terror attack in the coastal town of Cambrils on Thursday suffered a "severe emotional shock", El Mundo, the second largest daily newspaper of Spain, reported on Sunday.

The officer, dubbed as "the Hero of Cambrils", a former member of the Spanish Foreign Legion, is receiving the help of police psychologists specialized in this kind of traumas, the report said.

The officer, confirmed as a female, shot and killed the four among the five members of the terrorist cell as they, armed with machetes and guns, attempted to carry out an attack in the coastal town, 170 kilometers south of Barcelona, a few hours after 13 people were killed and over 120 injured when a van was driven at high speed into crowds on Barcelona's Las Ramblas.

The officer, a member of the Mossos d'Esquadra force (Catalan police force), acted after the terrorists in Cambrils drove through a police control and attempted to drive through another, while attempting to mow down anyone in their path and then stabbing a woman to death after they had crashed their car.

After realizing the seriousness of the situation, the officer, who is described as someone with "enormous technical qualifications for using weapons and in taking rapid decisions," shot the four of the terrorists dead, preventing more fatalities on an already bloody day.

The report said this officer had volunteered to do extra hours to be part of an extra security allocation on duty to tighten controls in the wake of the Barcelona massacre hours ago.

The authorities are doing everything possible to protect the anonymity of the officer, as they believe it is fundamental to protect the family of the officer" from possible reprisals from jihadist groups.

Thirteen people were killed and about 120 others injured on Thursday afternoon in the popular Las Ramblas area of Barcelona when a white van zigzagged at high speed down the busy avenue thronged with tourists, knocking down pedestrians.

On early Friday, the 14th victim, a woman, was reportedly stabbed when five people jumped out of a car and began attacking people at random on the seaside promenade in Cambrils.

The fifth terrorist managed to flee the hero cop, but was shot dead by another officer.

Both attacks were carried out by a single terrorist cell made up of about 12 people, according to Spanish police.