The official said one of the two brothers in the Brussels strikes, Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, rented the Forest safe house that Abdeslam used in the wake of November’s Paris attacks – definitively connecting the Paris and Brussels attack cells, the official said.
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Reports also emerged Thursday that the attackers originally planned on striking the day after Easter.
Prosecutors have said another suspected participant in the airport attack is at large, a man in a hat seen in surveillance images. Authorities have identified the third suicide bomber as Najim Laachraoui, a Moroccan-born Belgian and suspected bomb maker for European plots by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.
DH said the taxi driver recalled smelling ammonia during the trip and when he dropped the men off at the airport he noticed their bags had traces of white powder on them.
Khalid and Ibrahim El-Bakraoui were also already in US terrorism databases at the time of the attacks, USA officials have confirmed.
Belgian officials resisted Turkish criticism of their inaction following Ibrahim el-Bakraoui’s deportation last July, pointing out that suspected militants expelled from Turkey can not be detained without evidence they have committed a crime.
Belgian security forces last week failed to press the sole terrorist to survive the November attacks in Paris when he denied knowing the men who days later carried out the suicide bombings in Brussels, the French daily Le Monde reported Friday, according to Reuters.
Fears are mounting that more attacks may be coming in Europe.
He said they have no clue as to what could have led him to be radicalised.
He is set to discuss American support for the Belgian investigation as well as efforts to coordinate counterterrorism responses, the U.S. Embassy in Brussels said.
Speaking from Argentina, President Barack Obama once again urged the worldwide community to come together in the terror fight.
“What we feared has happened”, he said.
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Abdeslam’s lawyer, Sven Mary, told reporters that Abdeslam “wants to explain himself in France, so it’s a good thing”. He had initially cooperated with investigators but was fighting extradition, Mary told reporters.
