Interior minister Jan Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens both tendered their resignations over the claims that Ibrahim El Bakraoui had slipped through the net despite being arrested by Turkey near the Syrian border and deported to the Netherlands.
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Prime Minister Charles Michel, who turned down their offers to quit, meanwhile pledged the government would “shed light” on the attacks in Brussels as Belgium faced growing criticism for alleged security breaches.
Police reportedly arrested six people in operations on Thursday evening.
Earlier Friday, authorities said police raided a man’s home in the Brussels borough of Schaerbeek and possibly found explosives. De Morgen newspaper said he had violated the terms of his parole in May by maintaining contacts with past criminal associates, but a Belgian magistrate had released him. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls led calls for a “strong European response”, but officials say many states, including France, withhold their most cherished data despite a mantra of willingness to share intelligence.
Belgium raised its terror threat to the maximum level, locals were warned to stay inside and security is being boosted across Europe.
Investigators are actively seeking a suspect in the Brussels metro bombing and another suspect in the airport bombing.
In Paris on Thursday, authorities arrested a French national suspected of belonging to a militant network planning an attack in France. A helicopter circled overhead, and the area was under extraordinarily heavy security, as are many parts of the Belgian capital.
‘Belgium ignored our warning that this person is a foreign fighter’.
A senior Turkish official later confirmed it was Ibrahim El Bakraoui.
Dutch police chief Erik Akerboom told Nos that many questions need to be answered.
Laachraoui travelled to Hungary with him previous year, while the Bakraoui brothers rented – as well as the Belgian safe house used by the Paris killers – a flat in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels where Abdeslam himself hid for three weeks after the attacks.
And FBI Terrorist Screening Center spokesman Dave Joly said the centre would not publicly confirm or deny any individual’s presence in its database.
A suspected bomb-maker from the November attacks in Paris, Najim Laachraoui, is also believed to be a suicide bomber involved in the Brussels airport attack.
The brother of suspected Brussels suicide bomber Najim Laachraoui has spoken out about the sibling he knew before radicalisation took hold.
Ibrahim El Bakraoui blew himself up in the check-in hall of the airport while Khalid El Bakraoui attacked a train at Maelbeek station near European Union headquarters.
There are reports of a second suspect being sought for that attack.
Two days after terrorists blew themselves up in Brussels, killing 31 and injuring hundreds, the identity of the victims and three terror suspects was revealed. Asked if Mr. Abdeslam had reacted to the attacks, Mr. Mary responded, “He had no reaction”.
Mr Mary said: “Salah Abdeslam told me that he wishes to return to France as soon as possible”.
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A court hearing on Thursday on the detention of Abdeslam and two other suspects has been postponed until 7 April. New attacks could come at any moment, the official added. He said the assault “struck at the very heart of Europe”.
