Like the Paris attacks, they were claimed by Islamic State, and the killings have raised renewed questions about European Union states’ ability to respond in an effective, coordinated way to the Islamist militant threat. One bomber was Bakraoui’s elder brother Brahim and the other, investigators believe, was Najim Laachraoui, though the source said that was still unconfirmed.
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A fourth suspect who failed to explode at the airport is on the run; the suspect at large was a man wearing a white coat and hat, security camera images revealed. “So he saw police officers after the attacks”, Mary said.
Separately, the prosecutors said they had released three of the six people they detailed on Thursday.
Also on Thursday evening, French police launched an anti-terror operation in Argenteuil, north-west of Paris, following the arrest hours earlier of a man suspected of planning an attack. He was shot in the leg during the arrest.
A helicopter circled overhead, and the area was under extraordinarily heavy security, as are many parts of the Belgian capital.
Belgian authorities have formally linked the Brussels terror attacks with those carried out in Paris last November, but there is still confusion over whether they have dismantled, or merely scattered a terrorist cell, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.
Two other men, Aboubakar A. and Rabah N., were also charged with terrorist activities and membership of a terrorist group. “The federal prosecutor has just informed me that Salah Abdeslam no longer wants to talk since the attacks on Zaventem and the Brussels metro”, Geens told a parliament committee on Friday looking into the attacks. Belgian authorities asked the public for information about Laachraoui after Abdeslam’s arrest last Friday.
Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters that the foiled attack would have been on French soil – and that the person arrested is implicated at a “high level” in the alleged plot.
Turkey meanwhile said that airport bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui had been deported from Turkey as a “foreign terrorist fighter” but that Belgium had ignored intelligence it provided.
Turkish officials could not immediately confirm that Khalid had also been in Turkey. “We were hit by blind attacks”.
As the investigation continues, the unofficial “march against fear” planned for Brussels on Sunday has been called off, NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports.
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Numerous dead remained unidentified, partly because of the severity of devastation caused by the nail-packed bombs detonated in crowds. Brahim was part of the attack on the airport that killed 11 people, while Khalid struck at the Maelbeek metro, where 20 people died.
