Belgium’s Justice Minister Koen Geens acknowledged Bakraoui had been deported but he told the local VRT TV network that there was no indication that he was involved in terrorism but was instead only known as a common criminal who had been given a conditional release from prison.
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The Islamic State group has trained at least 400 fighters to target Europe in deadly waves of attacks, deploying interlocking terror cells like the ones that struck Brussels and Paris with orders to choose the time, place and method for maximum chaos, officials have told The Associated Press.
The revelation adds weight to the theory that both attacks, which killed more than 150 people and injured hundreds more, are linked to the same Islamic State cell.
The missed cues did not stop there.
On Sunday, less than two days before the latest attacks, ABC News reported that Abdeslam allegedly told interrogators he was planning new operations and “was ready to restart something from Brussels”, Belgium’s foreign minister Didier Reynders said.
In a raid on Tuesday night investigators found a bomb factory in an apartment near where Ibrahim’s computer was left in the Brussels district of Schaarbeek, an area that has links to Abdeslam.
Photo released by Belgian federal police on demand of Federal prosecutor shows screengrab of airport CCTV camera showing suspects of this morning’s attacks at Brussels Airport in Zaventem on March 22, 2016.
Belgium’s main stock index ended Tuesday more or less flat on the day and rose 0.2 per cent on Wednesday, a testament to the investment community’s level-headedness.
One suspected terrorist was killed and two others escaped.
While Belgian officials say both brothers were suicide bombers, a US 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.
“French household confidence proved more resilient than anticipated, with consumers not prepared to change their daily habits in the face of terrorist attacks”, said IHS Global Insight economist Francesca Peck. This multilingual nation – in which citizens speak French, Dutch and German – is plagued by societal rifts and rivalry between jurisdictions.
Abdeslam is still alive but now in custody following a gun-battle with police Friday in Brussels.
“I always ask if the information I have will hamper the police”. Those attacks killed 130 people and terrified Europe.
“France and Belgium are united in pain more than ever”.
Thousands of people gathered at Place de la Bourse in the center of downtown Brussels – including dozens of students chanting “stop the war” – in solidarity with those killed.
But the terrorists’ relative ease of movement, critics say, also reflects the failings of a convoluted and overwhelmed law enforcement system in Belgium.
El Bakraoui was sentenced in October 2010 to nine years behind bars for opening fire on police officers with a Kalashnikov during a robbery, according to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF and CNN affiliate RTL.
The Belgian police have also been hampered by weird rules.
The other two attackers were 28-year-old former bus driver Samy Amimour and Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29. By then, Abdeslam was nowhere to be seen.
That last point is a reference to TATP, a type of explosive composed of peroxide and acetone which is thought to have been used in the Brussels attack. Just after the arrival of the bomb disposal unit the bag exploded due to the great instability of the explosives.
A Japanese government source said Wednesday one of the two injured Japanese nationals is Yu Takita, who has been seconded to the Global Federation of Insurance Associations in Brussels from the Life Insurance Association of Japan.
At least one group of travelers can’t leave the warehouse for fear of arrest – they’d been catching a connecting flight in Brussels but don’t hold any of the proper visa documents that would permit them to stay on Belgian soil.
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Turkish officials have claimed they warned the Belgian authorities last summer that Ibrahim was “a foreign terrorist fighter” – but he was allowed to walk free. And his arrest, since they knew he was going to talk, it was a response: ‘So what if he was arrested? But he seemed to suggest that the attempt to enter Syria did not indicate a special threat.
