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Police arrest seven men in Brussels and Paris following terror attacks Eight men held in Brussels and Paris following terror attacks
(about 1 hour later)
Police in Brussels are questioning six men arrested in overnight raids following Tuesday’s airport and metro attacks in the Belgian capital, amid reports a man detained in Paris has links to the same jihadist network. Police in Brussels are questioning seven men arrested in raids following Tuesday’s airport and metro attacks in the Belgian capital, amid reports a man detained in Paris has links to the same jihadist network.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said the arrests, two days after the twin suicide bombings killed 31 people and left 300 injured, came during police searches in the Brussels districts Schaerbeek and Jette, as well as in the city centre. Four days after the suicide bombings that killed 31 people and left 300 injured, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said six suspects were arrested during police searches in districts across the city on Thursday night.
Three suspects were detained in a car “outside the door of the federal prosecutor’s office”, a spokesman said. The state broadcaster, RTBF, said a seventh man had been arrested in the Forest area of the city on Friday. The daily De Standaard said one of those detained was a suspect caught on CCTV cameras talking to the metro attacker. It was not known if another suspect, filmed with the two bombers at the airport, was among the seven arrested.
As evidence accumulated that the attacks were carried out by the same Islamic State network responsible for November’s carnage in Paris that killed 130 people, authorities in France said they had thwarted a militant plot there that was “at an advanced stage”. As evidence mounted that a thriving, well-organised Islamic State network straddling France and Belgium was responsible for both the Brussels attacks and November’s carnage in Paris, authorities in France said they had thwarted a militant plot there that was “at an advanced stage”.
The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said the man arrested in Argenteuil near Paris on Thursday afternoon “belonged to a terrorist network that sought to strike our country”, but said there was “no tangible evidence” linking the plot to the attacks either in Paris or Brussels. The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said the man arrested in Argenteuil near Paris on Thursday afternoon had been under surveillance “for several weeks” and belonged to “a terrorist network that sought to strike our country”.
But the AFP new agency cited police sources as saying the suspect, named by French media as French national Reda Kriket, was convicted in absentia in Belgium in July along with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the 13 November attacks on the French capital, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He said there was “no tangible evidence” linking the plot to the attacks either in Paris or Brussels. But police sources told AFP the suspect, named by French media as Reda Kriket, had been convicted in absentia in Belgium in July with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the 13 November attacks on the French capital, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Le Point magazine said Kriket had a criminal record for armed robbery and was a key member of the so-called Zerkani network, a Belgian jihadi group responsible for sending at least 30 Belgian extremists to fight in Syria. A small quantity of explosives were reportedly found in his apartment. Le Point magazine said both Kriket, a French national who had a criminal record for armed robbery, and Abaaoud were key members of the so-called Zerkani network, a jihadi group responsible for sending at least 30 Belgian extremists to fight in Syria. A small quantity of explosives were reportedly found in his apartment.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was due to arrive in Brussels on Friday in a show of solidarity. He is expected to pay tribute to the victims at the airport and hold meetings with EU officials. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, in Brussels to meet the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, on Thursday, said the US – which lost two of its citizens in the attacks – was “praying and grieving with you for the loved ones of those cruelly taken from us”.
The Belgian interior and justice ministers, Jan Jambon and Koen Geens, offered to resign on Thursday after widespread criticism that the attackers – at least three of whom were known to authorities – had been allowed to slip through the net. Kerry said America “stands firmly with Belgium and with the nations of Europe in the face of this tragedy”, adding that the world would not relent in its fight against Isis. “We – all of us representing countless nationalities – have a message: we will not be intimidated,” he said.
The ministers conceded errors had been made in particular in keeping track of one of the Brussels bombers, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, who was expelled last year by Turkey and flagged as a suspected terrorist fighter but was able to blow himself up in the airport attack. The Belgian interior and justice ministers, Jan Jambon and Koen Geens, offered to resign on Thursday after widespread domestic and international criticism that despite at least three of the jihadis having been known to the authorities for some months, they had been unable to foil the attacks.
The EU home affairs commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said on Thursday the “attacks did not come as a surprise”, raising further questions as to why international authorities failed to stop the bombers. The ministers conceded errors had been made, in particular over one of the Brussels bombers, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 30, who was expelled last year by Turkey and flagged as a suspected terrorist fighter, but was able to blow himself and 11 other people up in the airport attack.
Bakraoui was one of two suicide bombers at the airport whose suitcase bombs killed 11 people. His brother Khalid, 26, detonated the bomb that killed about 20 people at Maelbeek metro station, near the headquarters of the European commission in the city centre. The EU home affairs commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said on Thursday the attacks “did not come as a surprise”, raising further awkward questions about Europe’s apparent inability to keep collective track of homegrown extremists and fighters returning from Syria.
Bakraoui was one of two suicide bombers at the airport whose suitcase bombs killed 11 people. His brother Khalid, 26, detonated the bomb that claimed 20 more victims at Maelbeek metro station, near the headquarters of the European commission in the city centre.
Prosecutors have confirmed that Khalid rented a flat used as a hideout for the Paris attackers, and was named in an international arrest warrant issued on 11 December.Prosecutors have confirmed that Khalid rented a flat used as a hideout for the Paris attackers, and was named in an international arrest warrant issued on 11 December.
In further evidence of connections between the Paris and Brussels attacks, police sources have said they believe the second dead suicide bomber at the airport was Najim Laachraoui, 24, a veteran Belgian Isis fighter and bombmaker whose DNA was found on two of the explosive belts used in Paris. In further evidence that the Paris and Brussels attacks were carried out by the same network, police sources have said they believe the second dead suicide bomber at the airport was Najim Laachraoui, 24, a veteran Belgian Isis fighter and bombmaker whose DNA was found on two of the explosive belts used in Paris.
It was not clear whether a fourth suspected attacker, wearing a white jacket and hat and caught on CCTV cameras with the two airport bombers, and a fifth suspect, thought to have been involved in the metro attack, were among the men arrested on Thursday night. All the Brussels attackers so far identified by police and prosecutors have links to Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the 10 jihadis who carried out November’s Paris attacks on a concert hall, the Stade de France and a string of cafes and bars killing 130 people.
All the Brussels attackers so far identified by police and prosecutors have links to Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the 10 jihadis who carried out November’s Paris attacks on a concert hall, the Stade de France and a string of cafes and bars.
Laachraoui travelled to Hungary with him last year, while the Bakraoui brothers rented – as well as the Belgian safe house used by the Paris killers – an apartment in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels where Abdeslam himself hid for three weeks after the attacks.Laachraoui travelled to Hungary with him last year, while the Bakraoui brothers rented – as well as the Belgian safe house used by the Paris killers – an apartment in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels where Abdeslam himself hid for three weeks after the attacks.
Abdeslam, 26, was arrested in Brussels last week, appeared briefly in court on Thursday, and is likely to be extradited to France within weeks.Abdeslam, 26, was arrested in Brussels last week, appeared briefly in court on Thursday, and is likely to be extradited to France within weeks.
Belgium lowered its security alert level one notch to three from the highest level, four, but officials did not say what that would mean in terms of security measures that have included a heavy police and military presence in Brussels. Belgium lowered its security alert level one level, but officials did not say what that would mean in terms of security measures that have included a heavy police and military presence in Brussels, the capital of both the European Union and Nato.
People of around 40 nationalities were killed or wounded in the attack. Those injured in the attacks came from around 40 different countries. Few of the dead have so far been formally identified, authorities have said, with forensic experts sometimes able to work from only small fragments of bodies. Final identification could take weeks, they have warned.