Belgian newspaper DH has named the man, who was pictured wearing light-coloured clothing, as Najim Laachroui, already wanted in connection with last November’s deadly attacks in Paris.
Advertisement
RTBF reported that the two airport suicide bombers in Tuesday’s attacks were brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El-Bakraoui.
At the beginning of his speech delivered at the Alicia Alonso Grand Theater in Havana, the capital of Cuba, alongside Cuban leader Raul Castro, Obama made an aside to condemn the terrorist attacks in Brussels Tuesday morning, which left at least 34 people dead and 200 more injured.
While Belgian officials say both brothers were suicide bombers, a USA official briefed earlier on preliminary evidence from the investigation says authorities are looking at the possibility that one of the airport explosions may have been caused by a bomb inside a suitcase and the other was a suicide bombing.
Islamic State (IS) militants have claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The explosions happened in quick succession shortly after 08:00 local time (07:00 GMT), with some victims reportedly hit by the second blast as they tried to escape the first.
Janie Booth, a journalism major who is now interning at EU Reporter, said that even though she lives and works more than 30 minutes from the attacks, everyone in Brussels is feeling the aftershock of the explosions.
“The U.S. Embassy recommends sheltering in place and avoiding all public transportation”.
The third unidentified man being sought is believed to have been a guide, charged with ensuring the others carried out the attacks, according to Van Leeuw and experts.
The Obama administration also was expected to impose tighter security measures at United States airports following the Brussels Airport bombings, which occurred in a public hall outside of the security check area.
After terror attacks in Brussels leaving 31 people dead, an East Carolina University professor specializing in global terrorism is sharing his thoughts on the situation.
In police raids Tuesday across Belgium, authorities later found a nail-filled bomb, chemical products and an Islamic State flag in a house in the Schaerbeek neighborhood, the state prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
Authorities have yet to provide details on what they think the attackers’ strategy was at the train station.
However, what perhaps is a semblance of hope is that the Michel government, as The Guardian report suggests, has realised the gravity and announced an additional budget of €400 million (nearly $450 million) for anti-terror forces. Three days of national mourning have been declared.
The man dressed in white left the airport after accompanying the other two, they said – a move the officials said appeared to be planned.
ISIS said its terrorists also opened fire at the airport.
Mr Turnbull waded into the global debate about protecting borders, reassuring Australians that “our domestic security arrangements are much stronger than they are in Europe where regrettably they allowed things to slip”.
Last week, explosives and an Islamic flag were found during a raid on an apartment in the south of Brussels.
The mayor of Paris said the Eiffel Tower will be lit in the colors of the Belgium flag Tuesday night as a symbol of solidarity.
Advertisement
While Belgian authorities knew that some kind of extremist act was being prepared in Europe, “we never could have imagined something of this scale”, Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said. “We will stand with them and we will together crush and destroy ISIS”.
