The officials said that Najim Laachraoui’s DNA was verified as that of one of the attackers on Tuesday, after samples were taken from remains found at the blast site in Brussels airport. The third suspect, who wore a pale coat and a dark hat in the right side of the picture, is also not yet identified and is being sought by police. Both men wear a single black glove to hide their bomb triggers.
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Earlier reports from Belgian media indicated the third suspect had been arrested Wednesday, but they withdrew that information, saying it was false.
French and Belgian authorities have said in recent days that the network behind the Paris attacks was much larger than initially thought – and developments this week suggest the same group could have staged both the Paris and Brussels attacks.
If true, this would strengthen the likelihood of a connection between the Paris and Brussels attacks. The attacks killed 34 people, including three suicide bombers, and injured 270 others, authorities said. They also found a computer in a street trash can that contained a suicide note from Ibrahim, who wrote that he felt increasingly vulnerable.
The Bakraoui brothers were known to police – there is an worldwide arrest warrant out for 27-year old Khalid el-Bakraoui who was jailed in 2011 for car-jacking.
On Wednesday, Turkish authorities said one of the Brussels suicide attackers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was caught last June near the Syrian border and deported to the Netherlands, with Ankara warning Dutch and Belgian officials that he was a “foreign terrorist fighter”. As a result, the Dutch let him go, it is claimed.
While authorities have been able to move quickly on intelligence from the airport attacks, very little has been publicly revealed about the bombing at the Maelbeek metro station.
A message left on Ibrahim El Bakraoui’s laptop found by the police said that he suspected the police were searching for him and did not want to end up in a cell, the Guardian reported on its website. The Islamic State terrorist group is claiming responsibility for the attacks.
Seven of the attackers died on the night, and two more were killed the following week. Belgian officials, however, cautioned that it would have been hard for the terrorists to put together such a sophisticated attack on short notice.
His brother Ibrahim, 30, who was one of two suicide bombers at the airport, had been handed a nine-year sentence for firing his gun at police, local media say.
He is also linked to another apartment in southern Belgium that Abdeslam and other jehadists used before the Paris attacks.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who is visiting Brussels Wednesday, called on the European Union parliament to authorize a passenger name record for the continent, according to the Associated Press. The airport is closed at least through Friday; a statement said “the forensic investigation is still underway”.
Belgium’s Interior Minister Jan Jambon said that even on high alert, the authorities can not be expected to prevent all the terror attacks being hatched in their midst.
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The friendly global football match between Belgium and Portugal, scheduled for 29 March in Brussels, has been cancelled.
