Homeland Security News

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.

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

Police are still hunting for the driver of the van that hit dozens of people on Barcelona's Las Ramblas, killing 13.

On Sunday, a Mass was held in Barcelona to mourn the victims.

In addition to the 13 killed on Thursday afternoon on Las Ramblas, a woman died in a second vehicle attack early on Friday in the town of Cambrils. Five suspected jihadists were shot dead by police in the second attack.

The Catalan authorities have also confirmed that a British-Australian seven-year-old, Julian Cadman, was among those killed in Barcelona.

He had been declared missing since becoming separated from his injured mother in the attack, and his family had made appeals for news of his whereabouts.

Read more:  BBC News

A combined force of Taliban and "self-proclaimed" Islamic State militants killed at least 36 people in what may amount to war crimes during a raid on a northern Afghan town this month, the United Nations said on Sunday.

The dead in the town of Mirza Olang included civilians and pro-government fighters who had been disarmed before they were shot, a preliminary U.N. report concluded.

The killings occurred during fighting between Aug. 3 and 5 after the militants attacked the town, which lies in Sar-e Pul province. At the time Afghan officials put the death toll at 62, with at least 36 bodies recovered from mass graves last week.

A spokesman for the Taliban called the U.N. report "baseless allegations" and "false claims".

Zabihullah Mujahid repeated an earlier statement that the Taliban had killed 28 pro-government militia fighters, but no civilians were harmed. He also denied that Islamic State was involved in the fighting.

Read more:  Reuters

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces on Sunday launched a multi-pronged assault to retake the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, marking the next phase in the country’s war on the Islamic State group.

Tal Afar and the surrounding area is one of the last pockets of IS-held territory in Iraq after victory was declared in July in Mosul, the country’s second-largest city. The town, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of the Syrian border, sits along a major road that was once a key IS supply route.

“The city of Tal Afar will be liberated and will join all the liberated cities,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised speech early Sunday. He was dressed in a black uniform of the type worn by Iraqi special forces.

He called on the militants to “surrender or die.”

By early afternoon, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, who commands the operation, said the forces had recaptured a series of villages east, southwest and northwest of town.

The U.S.-led coalition providing air and other support to the troops praised what it said was a “capable, formidable, and increasingly professional force.”

Read more:  AP