But U.S. officials now think the extremist group has been sending trained militants to Europe for some time.
Advertisement
Police and troops descended on a Brussels neighborhood where a suspected bomb factory was found earlier this week and arrested one suspect Friday, one of a spate of detentions across Belgium and France over the last two days.
Der Spiegel reported that a man whom Turkish authorities flew to Amsterdam last summer along with one of the El Bakraoui brothers was arrested in Duesseldorf on Thursday.
Authorities are looking for two other men.
Undated combination photo provided by the Belgian Federal Police in Brussels of suspect Najim Laachraoui on Monday, 21 March 2016. “It is very important for us today to receive your support”, he said.
Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary said on Thursday his client now did not want to fight extradition to Paris and insisted Abdeslam “didn’t know” in advance about the Brussels attacks.
They confirmed that David Dixon, a computer programmer living in Brussels, was killed in the bombing on the Brussels subway.
Dixon’s family has asked for privacy and indicated no statements will be made.
The Belgian Embassy, not long after Kerry’s arrival, sent a Twitter message calling his stop here an example of “the solidarity of the American people which goes right to our heart”. The attacks have laid bare intelligence shortcomings that have prompted European authorities to call for quicker and more efficient cooperation. The official, who was not authorized to speak to the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, did not have further details.
There, two of those carried out suicide bombings while authorities think the other escaped; about an hour later, a fresh blast rocked a train near the Maelbeek metro station.
Belgium’s security alert has now been lowered to its second lowest level and the airport could return to operation on Monday.
A large portion of the neighborhood was sealed off by masked police past midnight.
She declined to say how many were refused entry, but denied Belgian media reports that 11 staff had badges withdrawn at the Tihange plant since early last week.
Officials have not identified either suspect, but a USA official said the man seen at the airport was already in US terrorism databases at the time of the attacks.
Two French officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the man detained Thursday is Reda Kriket, a 34-year-old Frenchman wanted since January on suspicion of links to terrorism.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a televised address that the arrest helped “foil a plot in France that was at an advanced stage”.
Michel said, “We need to accept that we need to improve the fight against terrorism in Europe and in Belgium”.
Authorities have identified Abaaoud as the ringleader of the November 13 attacks in Paris.
People of around 40 nationalities were killed or wounded in the attack.
The brothers planted a hidden camera in front of the home of the director of research and development at the Belgian nuclear programme, the La Derniere Heure newspaper said.
Washington announced that Secretary of State John Kerry would visit Belgium on Friday.
Residents of Brussels anxiously moved on with their lives as more police raids followed the vicious attacks in which more than 30 people were killed Tuesday.
As Belgians struggled to cope with the shock of the attacks and a torrent of worldwide criticism of their security services, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker jumped to the country’s defence, dismissing charges that Belgium is a “failed state”.
The fates of the two other suspects – one from the airport blasts, the other from the subway – was still unknown Friday.
Advertisement
Bert Koenders said the victims were a woman from the eastern city of Deventer and a brother and sister from the southern Limburg province who live in the US.
