Eiffel Tower may have been target of Spain’s IS cell — report

A new report suggests that the Eiffel Tower may have been among the targets of the Islamic State cell that attacked Barcelona last year.

The protective wall that surrounds the Eiffel Tower was installed after video of a trip to Paris was found in a destroyed hideout, according to the report by researchers Fernando Reinares and Carola Garcia-Calvo in January’s CTC Sentinel, a research publication into terrorism. The cell attacked Barcelona’s La Rambla and a beachside town, killing 16 people in August.

Only flawed bomb construction prevented a deadlier attack. The hideout blew up as the cell was assembling explosives.

According to the report, based on interviews with investigators and court documents, members of the cell traveled to Paris before the attack, for reasons investigators have yet to determine. There, they bought a camera and filmed the Eiffel Tower.

— AP