Six detained in raids linked to Brussels attacks
Explosives found as Belgian authorities say terrorists will probably strike again
BRUSSELS— Belgian prosecutors say six people have been detained in raids around Brussels linked to this week’s attacks on the city’s airport and subway system that killed 31people and injured at least 270 others.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement late Thursday that the arrests were made during raids in central Brussels, Jette and the Schaerbeek neighbourhoods.
Police found a large stash of explosives and other bomb-making material this week in an apartment in Schaerbeek believed used by the suicide bombers.
Schaerbeek residents described hearing detonations during the police raids.
It was unclear whether they were explosions or controlled detonations.
Belgium’s prime minister refused Thursday to accept the resignations of his justice and interior ministers despite increasing evidence of intelligence and law enforcement failures to prevent this week’s attacks.
In a Paris suburb, a man suspected of plotting an imminent attack was also detained Thursday, but the interior minister reported no apparent link with the Brussels airport and subway bombings or the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris.
Authorities lowered Belgium’s terror-threat level by one notch, although they said the situation remained grave and another attack is “likely and possible.”
Belgium had been on its highest alert since Tuesday’s bombings.
“We don’t have to be proud about what happened,” Justice Minister Koen Geens said of the government’s failures to halt the attacks. “We perhaps did things we should not have done.” About a kilometre from the bombed subway station, European justice and home ministers held an emergency meeting where they condemned the “terrorist acts” as “an attack on our open, democratic society.”
They also urged the European Parliament to adopt an agreement allowing authorities to exchange airport passenger data.
Amanhunt continued for one of the Brussels airport attackers who was recorded on a surveillance video and had fled the scene.
Prosecutors declined to comment on reports from Belgian state broadcaster RTBF and France’s Le Monde and BFM television that a fifth attacker may also be at large: A man seen on surveillance cameras in the Brussels metro carrying a large bag alongside one of the suicide bombers.
It is not clear whether that man was killed in the attack or is a fugitive.
Authorities drew a line between the Brussels bombings and the Nov. 13 attacks that left 130 dead in Paris. Both appeared to have been carried out by the same Belgium-based Daesh cell.
Prosecutors have said at least four people were involved in the Brussels bloodshed, including brothers Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui, identified as suicide bombers. European security officials identified another suicide bomber as Najim Laachraoui, a suspected bomb maker for the Paris attacks.
Khalid el-Bakraoui blew himself up on the train, while Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Laachraoui died in the airport.
It is clear that some of the Brussels attackers had been on the run from authorities in France and Belgium but were still able to hide in safe houses, assemble bombs and carry out linked attacks.
“If you put all things in a row, you can ask yourself major questions,” about the government’s performance, said Interior Minister Jan Jambon, who along with Geens had tendered his resignation.
While Belgium lowered its threat level, “the danger has not gone away,” said Paul Van Tigchelt, the head of the terror assessment authority.
Nevertheless, several hundred people gathered at a makeshift memorial to the victims in Brussels’ central Place de La Bourse. They sang peace songs, took selfies and wiped away tears.
Also Thursday, Abdeslam was summoned to court in Brussels. His lawyer, who had initially vowed to fight extradition to France for the Paris attacks, said he now wants to be sent there as soon as possible.