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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-Catalonia-terrorist-attacks-503253
The Catalonia Terrorist Attacks
(Jerusalem Post) Ely Karmon - The 500 Muslims of Ripoll, Spain, are 5% of its population and they live in no ghetto. The 12 terrorist cell members, all born in Morocco but with Spanish nationality, apparently were integrated into the life of the community and played on the local soccer team. Abdelbaki Es Satty, the imam of the Annur Muslim community in Ripoll, most probably acted as the leader of the group. He died in the explosion at their headquarters in Alcanar. The Catalan cell was most probably a local one, based on family (four pairs of brothers), and personal relations. It seems they didn't have serious previous training, which explains the "work accident" with explosives. They apparently didn't have access to firearms. Before the Barcelona attacks, 51 suspected jihadists had already been detained in Spain this year. The writer is a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT).