One of the suicide bombers from Tuesday’s attack at the Brussels Airport left a note that has been discovered near an apartment where a taxi picked him up, according to the Belgian prosecutor’s office.
Advertisement
On Thursday, US media reported that the two brothers, who carried out suicide-bomb attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, have been listed in US databases of potential terror threats.
Another of the suspected killers, dubbed “the man in white”, was pictured pushing a trolley through Zaventem Airport with Najim Laachraoui and Khalid’s brother Ibrahim before they blew themselves up.
The first official said Ibrahim El Bakraoui’s initial deportation in July had been based on police suspicions that he was a militant fighter, but no crime was committed in Turkey, describing his expulsion as an “administrative deportation”.
Reuters quoted the report which said that “prosecutors on Monday said Laachraoui had traveled to Hungary in September with Paris attacks prime suspect Salah Abdeslam”.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Brussels airport will remain closed until at least Monday. Security forces stood guard around the neighbourhood housing headquarters of European Union institutions, as nervous Brussels residents began returning to school and work under a misty rain.
IS claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels and Paris, which have laid bare European security failings and prompted calls for better intelligence cooperation and a tougher response to IS extremists.
A third suspect, 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui, was on the run from police when he allegedly detonated one of the bombs at the airport.
Police also revealed they had found 15 kilograms of TATP high explosives and a mass of bomb-making material during searches in the Schaerbeek district of the Belgian capital.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said he was aware that the suspect had been deported from Turkey but denied that he had been flagged as a possible terrorist.
Asked what his client had said about the Brussels attacks, Mr. Mary replied, “He didn’t say, because he didn’t know it”. Both attacks killed at least 31 people and wounded 270.
It was during that raid that detectives found a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the Paris terror attacks of 13 November.
Last Friday, they raided a Brussels apartment and arrested one of the Paris conspirators.
Advertisement
Khalid is believed to have rented a house in Charleroi in Belgium which was used as a hideout for the Paris attackers.
