“The people of Kurdistan who themselves are the victim of terror and are at the forefront in the fight against terror consider themselves sympathetic to Barcelona city,” the statement by the Kurdish presidency read.
Catalan officials are linking Thursday’s van attack at Barcelona’s promenade with another attack in Cambrilis, a seaside town about 100 kilometers from Barcelona, The Associated Press reported.
In Barcelona, 14 people were killed and 100 were injured, 15 of them seriously as of Friday afternoon.
"It was clearly a terror attack, intended to kill as many people as possible," Josep Lluis Trapero, a senior police official for Catalonia told reporters.
Two people were arrested but the van driver, who fled on foot, remained at large
Early Friday morning, police killed five suspects engaged in an attack that injured six people in Cambrilis, the police force for Spain's Catalonia region
Police added that the five suspects shot and killed in Cambrils were carrying bomb belts, which have been detonated by the force's bomb squad.
Catalan Interior Minister Joaquin Forn told local radio RAC1 early Friday that the Cambrils attack "follows the same trail" as the Barcelona attack. "There is a connection."
Kurdistan Region is holding an independence referendum on independence on September 25. The Catalan government will hold a similar referendum on October 1. Both Baghdad and Madrid oppose the referendum in their respective countries considering the votes to be unconstitutional.
The Kurdistan Region has been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS in northern Iraq since 2014, and has been praised for its efforts by the global coaltion to defeat ISIS and many European nations.
"London, Brussels, Paris and some other European cities have had the same experience. It's been Barcelona's turn today," Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia's government.
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/2ibCfrb
via Defense News
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