Suspects held in Brussels raids ‘planning’ to attack

Brussels, July 5: At least two of the four people arrested in Brussels terror raids overnight were suspected of planning an attack, a source close to the investigation said on Wednesday.

The pair were brothers of Said Saouti, a member of the Kamikaze Bikers club who was jailed for six years in 2016 for belonging to a terrorist group, according to media reports confirmed by the source, who asked not to be named. Separately, a joint Franco-Belgian operation picked up a man in northern France on suspicion of having links to the Kamikaze Riders, a notorious bikers club from around Brussels. The series of raids in Brussels also turned up an arms cache, which another source said included two Kalashnikov assault rifles. Reports said explosives were discovered during the operation in the immigrant-heavy Anderlecht district but this was not confirmed.

Authorities were drawn to the Saouti brothers on suspicion that they had been radicalised and were planning an attack, which appeared to be borne out by the weapons found, according to reports. There was no information on a possible target but the police decided not to wait any longer.

The raids come with Belgium and France still on high alert after several deadly attacks claimed by the ISIS, with troops on patrol in Brussels and Paris to guard key buildings and infrastructure.

Only last month, a soldier shot dead a man who had attempted to set off a bomb in Central Station, right in the heart of the Belgian capital, sparking fears that further incidents might be in the offing. Investigators said at the time they had evidence the suspect, a 36-year-old Moroccan national, had ISIS sympathies.

They found explosives in a raid on his home in Molenbeek, where many of the jihadis who carried out the deadly Paris attacks in November 2015 and those in the Belgian capital in March 2016, grew up and found shelter.