The top suspect in the Paris bombings, Salah Abdeslam, captured in Brussels one week ago, just days before the attacks, has insisted on exercising his right to silence, prosecutors said Friday.
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The official did not offer specifics on where the Americans died, saying only that two had been confirmed killed.
In the most recent raid, a man carrying a backpack was shot in Schaerbeek district after refusing to obey police orders, media say. There is a question at to whether there may also have been a second attacker at the metro bombing.
Heavily armed police and military with trucks cordoned off an area around a major intersection and three blasts – which Mr Clerfayt said were controlled explosions – were heard. A child can be seen walking over to police from the man on the ground.
A witness told Mashable: ‘He [the suspect] couldn’t walk, he couldn’t, I think he stayed on the ground. “They said that if he did not comply, they would use their weapons”.
A bomb squad robot approached the wounded man, checking for explosives.
The Brussels bombing of an airport and a subway station left 31 dead and 300 injured, and was the worst terrorist attack in Belgian history. Abdeslam, whose brother blew himself up in Paris, was in the French capital on the night of the attacks on November 13 and is the first suspected active participant taken alive.
French national Reda Kriket, 34, was arrested in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb west of Paris. His lawyer said Abdeslam is not fighting extradition to France, which wants him to face potential terrorism charges. A manhunt has been underway since Tuesday for one of the Brussels airport attackers who was recorded on a surveillance video and fled the scene.
The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said that Kriket, described as being part of a circle of militants that included Abaaoud, had been involved in the “advanced stages” of a new terrorist plot. This, after Turkey said it had arrested and deported alleged suicide bomber Ibrahim Bakraoui past year as a suspected terrorist, informing Belgian diplomats in Turkey.
According to Belgian authorities, Laachraoui’s DNA was also found on the explosives used in the gun and suicide attacks in Paris, CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata reported.
A court hearing on Thursday on the detention of Abdeslam and two other suspects has been postponed until 7 April. Prosecutors said that the arrests were linked to a raid in Paris on Thursday, where an attack was apparently foiled.
ARD said an SMS on the man’s phone mentioned the name of one of the two El Bakraoui brothers.
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As well as meeting with officials from Belgium and the European Union, which is based in Brussels, Kerry is due to pay his respects to the victims of this week’s attacks, which he says underscore the urgent need for a unified front against the Islamic State group.
