The United States swiftly condemned Thursday’s deadly terrorist attack in Barcelona and offered assistance to authorities in Spain.
President Donald Trump, who remained out of public view for a second straight day, denounced the attack in a statement on Twitter. “The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!” the president said.
Trump later revived a widely discredited story about an Army general who supposedly halted Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting the rebels with bullets dipped in pigs’ blood (pork is taboo for Muslims).
“Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!” Trump tweeted.
Trump told the same story of Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing and his efforts to quell the Moro Rebellion during the 2016 presidential campaign, where the story was also knocked down by media. Fact-checking organizations such as Politifact and Snopes rated Trump’s claim as false.
Pershing once wrote in a memoir that another U.S. commander in the Philippines had at least once “seen to it” that Muslim insurgents’ bodies were buried in the same grave as a dead pig to serve as a warning to others.
Spanish authorities are treating Thursday’s incident as a terrorist attack, though at the point Trump tweeted they had not yet blamed “radical Islamic terror.”
Trump is on a working vacation at his private golf club in New Jersey. He was being briefed on developments in Spain by his chief of staff, John Kelly, the White House said.
First lady Melania Trump tweeted her “thoughts and prayers” to Barcelona before the president condemned the attack.
At least 13 people were killed and dozens more were wounded after a van was driven onto a sidewalk and down a pedestrian zone in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered condolences to victims of the attack during an appearance before journalists at the State Department. He said the incident “has the hallmarks of what appears to be yet another terrorist attack.”
Tillerson said U.S. diplomats in Spain are assisting Americans there, and he asked those who are safe to notify friends and families. Tillerson said the United States will never relent in tracking down terrorist suspects and holding them to account for their actions.
“Terrorists around the world should know that the United States and our allies are resolved to find you and bring you to justice,” Tillerson said.
