Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was deported from Turkey to the Netherlands in the summer of 2015, and Turkey warned Belgium that el-Bakraoui might have been a foreign fighter in Syria, the Guardian reports.
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Belgian media named that man as Najim Laachraoui, 25, a suspected Islamic State recruiter and bomb-maker whose DNA was found on two explosives belts used in last November’s Paris attacks and at a Brussels safe house used by Abdeslam before his arrest last Friday.
Earlier this week, police found a large stash of explosives and other bomb-making material in a Brussels apartment that they believe was being used by the suicide bombers. Both officials were briefed on the investigation.
Travelling under the false name Soufiane Kayal, he was documented driving from Hungary into Austria in September in a vehicle driven by Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris attacks, who was arrested in Brussels last week.
Both of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said authorities have been careful not to disclose the thwarted plots for two reasons.
People of around 40 nationalities were killed or wounded in the attack, that struck the symbolic heart of Europe and has left security agencies across the continent on edge.
Police were going door-to-door throughout Brussels searching for suspects or others planning attacks.
On Wednesday morning, a Belgian federal prosecutor named Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui as the suicide bombers involved in Tuesday’s deadly attacks.
“During the process of passing on the information from Turkey and during the information processing in Belgium, things went slower than the circumstances warranted”, Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said.
American authorities are said to have identified Europe’s most wanted man and found him on their terror database as he remains on-the-run after fleeing the airport when his bomb failed to explode. That bag later blew up, but no one was injured.
The suspects are believed to have been part of a cell linked to the Islamic State group, which claims responsibility for the attacks.
A combination of electronic intercepts, human sources and database tracking indicates several possible targets had been picked out by the ISIS operatives over the last few months since the Paris attacks, according to USA counterterrorism officials. Those attacks killed 130 people.
“Perhaps we should tone down our groveling to compensate for the sense of guilt we feel toward France”, Mary said after he and his client met with a Belgian investigating magistrate.
While rail and metro services had resumed yesterday, the heavily damaged Zaventem airport will remain closed through today, transport officials said. De Morgen newspaper said he had violated the terms of his parole in May by maintaining contacts with past criminal associates, but a Belgian magistrate had released him.
Individual radicalization often comes through close friends and family members, rather than just external teaching and preaching. “It’s important that you aren’t alone in your sadness”. They light candles, lay flowers and write messages of peace in chalk on the plaza….
But as Belgium began three days of national mourning on Wednesday, he insisted the country would not be cowed by the “blind, violent and cowardly” attacks.
Bakraoui’s brother Khalid, 26, a fellow convict, killed about 20 people at Maelbeek metro station in the city centre. The Paris attackers were mainly French and Belgian citizens of North African descent, some from neighborhoods that struggle with discrimination, unemployment and alienation.
The intelligence shortcomings have prompted European authorities to once again call for quicker and more efficient intelligence cooperation.
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Moniquet said the fear of more attacks is what keeps him up at night. He said that includes the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, a monthlong event being held in France that starts in June. Meanwhile, the Belgian football federation announced that it was calling off an worldwide soccer friendly match against Portugal next week because of the attacks.
