“Salah Abdeslam has asked me to inform you that he wishes to leave for France as quickly as possible”, Sven Mary said on Thursday in comments broadcast on BFM TV, speaking from Brussels.
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Belgium’s chief prosecutor named two brothers yesterday as Islamic State suicide bombers who killed at least 31 people in the most deadly attacks in Brussels’ history but said another key suspect was on the run.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attacks in both Paris and Brussels.
Turkey’s president this week criticized Belgium for failing to track the brothers -Brahim, a convicted Belgian armed robber whom it deported previous year and who blew himself up at the airport on Tuesday, and Khalid, who set off his suicide vest at a metro station in the city center an hour later.
As many as three explosions were heard from a police operation in a Brussels neighborhood that once housed a hideout for the suicide bombers who targeted the city’s airport and subway system this week.
At least one German man suffered serious injuries in the blasts, which hit the Belgian capital’s airport and metro system early on Tuesday morning.
The news came as three people were arrested in Brussels in connection with the attacks.
A sign reads “Why?” in English, French and Flemish behind candles and flowers near the Maelbeek metro station, in Brussels on Wednesday evening, March 23, 2016.
Prosecutors have said another suspected participant in the airport attack is at large, a man in a hat seen in surveillance images.
Koen Geens confirmed Thursday that Turkish police had previously arrested Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, and said authorities had not heeded their recommendation to detain el-Bakraoui in Belgium, the New York Times reports.
DH said the taxi driver smelled ammonia during the journey and when he dropped the men off at the airport noticed their bags had traces of white powder on them.
They are said to be brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui.
As for reassuring the nervous Belgian public, the prime minister said that there would be “no grey areas” in the investigation and hunt for more terrorists. Several attackers were also killed.
European Union interior and justice ministers decided on Thursday to set up “set up a joint liaison team of national counter-terrorism experts” at Europol, in Brussels.
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Abdeslam insisted he had not been aware of the plans for the Brussels attacks, even though he shared hideouts with the perpetrators.
