Younes Abouyaaqoub

An Islamist militant cell that last week used a van to kill 13 people in Barcelona had planned one or several major bomb attacks, possibly against churches or monuments, one suspect told a court on Aug. 22, according to sources close to the investigation.

Moroccan authorities have arrested two people suspected of links to the alleged perpetrators of the van attack that killed 13 people in the Spanish city of Barcelona, state TV channel 2M reported on Tuesday, quoted by Reuters. 

Four men accused of belonging to the cell behind the terror attacks in and around Barcelona last week are appearing at the high court in Madrid, reported BBC. 

The judge questioning them is deciding what charges to press over the vehicle attacks that left 15 people dead and more than 100 injured.

The four remaining alleged members of a terror cell that carried out deadly twin attacks in Spain arrived in a Madrid court on Aug. 22 where they will be grilled by a judge, after eight other suspects were killed.

Spanish police have shot dead the main suspect in last Thursday's Barcelona attack, Younes Abouyaaqoub.

Police believe he was the driver of a van which careered down the Las Ramblas avenue, killing 13 and injuring more than 100 others.

He was killed some 25 miles (40km) west of Barcelona near a sewage treatment works following a tip off.

The main suspect in the Barcelona van attack that killed 13 people last week, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, was detained on Aug. 21 in Sant Sadurni de Noya, west of Barcelona, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia said.
   

Younes Abouyaaqoub has been shot by the Spanish police after a two-day manhunt.

In the arrest of the assailant on the Las Ramblas pedestrian street in Barcelona, the Spanish police proceeded after a manhunt that lasted almost two hours.

The hunt for the driver who killed 13 people in last week's attack in Barcelona has been extended across Europe, Catalan officials say, quoted by BBC.

Police say they have now confirmed the driver's identity, but would not reveal his name.

But Catalan official Joaquim Forn told local radio: "Everything suggests the van driver is Younes Abouyaaqoub".

A 12-strong terror cell that carried out two attacks in Spain this week had collected 120 gas canisters and was planning to use them in vehicle attacks, Spanish police say, quoted by BBC. 

Canisters were found at a house said to be used by the cell that blew up in the town of Alcanar on Wednesday night.

Brief-stricken Spain and Finland paid homage on Aug. 20 to victims of terror assaults, as investigators turned their focus to Moroccan suspects in separate probes.