Threat of Paris-style attack grips Brussels
Security forces engulf city after ‘quite precise’ information suggests terrorist action imminent
As Belgium placed its capital city under a major terrorism alert and flooded its streets with security personnel Saturday, Canada issued a travel advisory urging citizens visiting the country to exercise “a high degree of caution.”
Following the receipt of what Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel described as “quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris,” the country’s national crisis centre raised its terrorism alert for the Brussels region to its highest level, indicating a “serious and immediate threat.”
At a news conference, Michel said the threat involved “one or more individuals capable of striking a number of sites using weapons and explosives.” Potential targets included commercial centres, public transport, shopping streets and large public gatherings, he said.
The alert came as authorities across Europe continued the manhunt for Salah Abdeslam, a Brussels resident who is believed to be one of the attackers who used automatic rifles and explosives to kill 130 people in a co-ordinated assault in Paris on Nov. 13. He crossed from France into Belgium the morning after the attacks, but his whereabouts is unknown.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre.
The suspected leader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in a Paris suburb on Wednesday. But authorities in Belgium continue the search for others who may have been involved.
KAMRAN BOKHARI TERRORISM EXPERT, U. OF OTTAWA “In the aftermath of what happened in Paris, no government wants to be found dismissive of intelligence.”
Efforts have been focusing on Molenbeek, a marginalized immigrant neighbourhood in Brussels where Abdeslam and Abaaoud both lived. Abdeslam’s brother, who blew himself up in the Paris attacks, also lived in the district.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said Saturday that several weapons were discovered in the Molenbeek home of one of three people arrested in connection with the Paris attacks. The three have been charged with “participation in terrorist attacks and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization.”
The travel advisory issued by Global Affairs Canada relayed that Belgian authorities had recommended that the public “avoid places with high concentrations of people in the Brussels region,” including major events, train stations and airports. It also noted that the metro system would be shut until Sunday and that events such as football matches would be cancelled.
“Canadians should expect enhanced security measures as well as an increase in police presence and should continue to exercise caution and vigilance,” the advisory said.
The U.S. Embassy in Belgium posted a similar message to its website, advising Americans in Brussels to “shelter in place and remain at home.”
“If you must go out, avoid large crowds,” it said.
A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada declined to comment on what information Belgium had shared with the Canadian govern- ment about the security situation, telling the Star in an email that “we can’t comment on bilateral relations.”
The spokesperson also couldn’t say how many Canadians are currently in Belgium, because the agency doesn’t keep track of how many citizens are living abroad.
As the threat of terrorism gripped European capitals, Canada’s threat level remained unchanged, according to Jean Paul Duval, a spokesman for Public Safety Canada.
“Canadian national security and law enforcement partners are being extra vigilant as we continue to monitor the international situation, including Belgium, very closely,” Duval wrote in an email.
According to terrorism expert Kamran Bokhari, the Belgian authorities’ “drastic” response to the terror threat, which included deploying heavily armed police and soldiers at key intersections and advising restaurants and bars to close, indicates “they had some very detailed information” that an attack was imminent.
But it’s also a sign that they were acting out of “fear that they may not be able to stop the perpetrators before the attack took place,” said Bokhari, an expert at the University of Ottawa’s Security and Policy Institute who specializes in countering violent extremism.
He added that a sweeping response to the threat was to be expected, particularly after reports that Iraqi intelligence officials had warned the French government about an attack on Paris before the Nov. 13 violence.
“In the aftermath of what happened in Paris . . . no government wants to be found dismissive of intelligence,” Bokhari said.
Alex Wilner, a professor at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, said that as long as Islamic State remains bent on attacking targets in the West, this likely will not be the last time a major European city is forced into a security lockdown.
“We have to think of the Paris attack last Friday as not a one-off, but as a point in a campaign of terrorism in Europe,” Wilner said.
“So, we’ll probably see warnings and closures of public spaces again, whether in Brussels or in the U.K. or in France or elsewhere. Officials will . . . point back to Paris and say, ‘Look, we’re trying to avoid this.’ And the public will put up with it.”
Belgium is emerging as a major flashpoint in the conflict between western states and Islamist extremists. Brussels is home not only to the Belgian capital but also to the headquarters of the European Union and NATO.
The seat of European power, the country also harbours a disproportionate number of Islamic extremists. More than 500 Belgians have left to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, making Belgium the biggest per capita contributor of foreign fighters in the Middle East conflict. With files from The Associated Press and The New York Times