MADRID, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Spanish police investigating the terrorist attacks which left 16 people dead in Barcelona and Cambrils last month are working to discover whether a further person gave them instructions in manipulating explosives, Spanish media reported on Tuesday.
It is widely thought that the iman of the town of Ripoli, Abdelbaki Es Satty, who was killed when explosives which the group was manufacturing exploded in their safe house in Alcaner at the night before the attack, was the ideological and spiritual leader of the group.
But Spanish national TV network RTVE quoted "anti-terrorist sources" in explaining that the 12-man terrorist cell could have received training in the manufacture and use of explosives from another person, who could be either based in France or Belgium.
It is known that some of the group made trips to those countries in the days before the attacks, while Es Satty had also lived in Belgium for a period of several months.
Meanwhile, three arrests have also been made in Morocco, and Moroccan authorities are still interrogating the families of some members of the cell.
The discovery that one member of the group also made a visit to the Spanish capital of Madrid has also opened a new line of investigation into whether the Ripoli cell had contacts with jihadists in other parts of Spain.
Four people were arrested in relation to the attacks with two remanded in prison by investigating Judge, Fernando Andreu.
One of the two, Driss Oukabir, has admitted that his younger brother, Moussa, who was shot dead by police at Cambrils had been radicalized by Es Satty.
Meanwhile, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido made an appeal late on Monday night for the Catalan authorities to clear up any doubts over the investigation.
This appeal is in relation to stories claiming the Catalan regional government received a warning from the CIA that jihadists were planning to attack Las Ramblas, where 14 people lost their lives during the August 17 attacks.
On Aug. 17, 14 people were killed 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 morning of Aug. 18, a fifteenth 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 later died at hospital. Six others were also injured in the attack.
