Investigations show Brussels bomber an IS sympathiser
BRUSSEL: Belgian investigators found evidence Wednesday that a suspect who set off a bomb at a Brussels train station in the latest in a wave of attacks on Europe had sympathies with the Islamic State group.
Police found explosive materials in a raid on the home of the suspect in Molenbeek, a Brussels district which has been linked to recent deadly terror plots in France and Belgium.
Belgian authorities identified the man, who was shot dead by a soldier, as a 36-year-old Moroccan national with the initials O.Z., while local media named him as Oussama Zariouh.
Prosecutors said police have taken into custody four people who were in “regular contact” with the suspect.
No one was injured in Tuesday’s foiled attack at Brussels Central station, but officials said the consequences could have been severe had the bomb full of nails and gas canisters detonated properly.
“It could have been much worse,” Belgian federal prosecutor’s spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told a news conference.
“It is clear that he wanted to cause more damage than he did.”
The man shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greatest) during the attack, he said, confirming witness reports.
Van Der Sypt later said a statement that a search of the man’s home “showed that he probably made the bomb there”.
“Both possible chemical substances and materials were found that could serve to make explosives,” he said.
“There are also indications that the suspect had sympathies for the terrorist organisation IS.”
Molenbeek Mayor Francoise Schepmans told Le Soir newspaper the bomber was an “isolated individual” who had recently got divorced.
He had been linked to a drugs offence, but not for radicalism. RTL radio said he ran a telecoms shop in Molenbeek.
The blast came a day after a man mowed down Muslims near a mosque in London, and a suspected Islamist on a terror watchlist rammed a car laden with weapons into a police vehicle in Paris.
Brussels was already on high alert since suicide bombers struck Zaventem Airport and the Maalbeek metro station near the EU quarter in March 2016, killing 32 people and injuring hundreds more.
Islamic State claimed the attacks, which were carried out by the same Brussels-based cell behind the November 2015 suicide bombings and shootings in Paris which left 130 people dead.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said a “terrorist attack has been prevented” on Tuesday in Brussels, which is home to the headquarters of the European Union and Nato alliance. — AFP