UN Security Council observes minute of silence for Spain terror victims

The UN Security Council observed a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the terror attacks in Spain's Catalonia region, the media reported.

"On behalf of the members of the Security Council, I should like to condemn in the strongest terms the unconscionable terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain, which targeted innocent civilians," Egypt's UN ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta, the council president, said on Friday.

The minute of silence was observed at the start of an open session on the war in Yemen, Efe news reported.

A van on Thursday afternoon smashed into dozens of pedestrians on Barcelona's famed Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100 before the driver fled on foot, while a separate vehicle attack and stabbing early Friday targeting pedestrians in the nearby seaside town of Cambrils left one woman dead and injured five others.

Police killed all five suspected terrorists responsible for that second attack, which they said was believed to be linked to the Barcelona van rampage.

The Islamic State terrorist group on Thursday claimed responsibility for the Ramblas attack, while investigators are looking for Moussa Oukabir, a 17-year-old Moroccan national, as the suspected driver of the van.

Four suspects linked to the attacks have been arrested.

--IANS

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