Police were tight-lipped about the arrests but said they would decide Friday whether those apprehended would remain in police custody.
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Turkey’s president said Wednesday that one of the Brussels suicide bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was caught in June 2015 near Turkey’s border with Syria and deported to the Netherlands, with Ankara warning Dutch and Belgian officials that he was a “foreign terrorist fighter”.
A resident of the cordoned-off street in Schaerbeek said the area remains blocked off but heavily armed officers involved in the operation have gone.
“Appearing on national television, the ministers acknowledged Belgium should have arrested Bakraoui, as his travel violated his parole”.
He heard about the explosions while driving his next passenger and immediately went to the police, it said.
Fears are mounting that more attacks may be coming in Europe.
Unconfirmed reports say another of the Brussels airport attackers was the wanted jihadist Najim Laachraoui, whose DNA was found on explosives linked to the attacks in Paris. There is a question at to whether there may also have been a second attacker at the metro bombing. It is not clear whether that man was killed in the attack. His lawyer said Abdeslam is not fighting extradition to France, which wants him to face potential terrorism charges for the Nov 13 attacks which killed 130 people.
Earlier on Thursday, Belgium admitted that it had made “errors” relating to one of the Brussels attackers.
Two further people were reportedly arrested in the Schaerbeek district in northern Brussels and the sixth was detained in Jette, a neighborhood west of the capital. There is no word yet on the identities of the suspects or their possible connection to the attacks. “The identification is still ongoing”, he said, referring to man caught on CCTV entering Maelbeek station with presumed bomber Khalid El Bakraoui.
Two Americans were killed in Tuesday’s suicide bombings in Brussels, a senior U.S. official said on Friday, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Belgian leaders and offered condolences and help following the attack.
Belgian police has identified three of the bombers, but at least two other suspects are still on the run. Officials say Khalid El Bakraoui had rented an apartment that was raided last week in an operation that led authorities to top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, linking the two attacks.
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Abdeslam, arrested last week in Brussels and initially cooperative, had “exercised his right to silence” and said nothing when interviewed after Tuesday’s bombings according to prosecutors in Brussels.
