Brussels continues hunt for jihadis
READY TO ACT France positions warship in Mediterranean to intensify bombing in Syria from today
BRUSSELS: Wester n leaders stepped up the rhetoric against the Islamic State group on Sunday as residents of the Belgian capital awoke to largely empty streets on the second day under the highest threat level.
With a menace of Paris-style attacks against Brussels and a missing suspect in the deadly Nov 13 attacks in France last spotted crossing into Belgium, the city kept subways and underground trams closed for a second day. Officials also recommended that sports competitions and all activities in public buildings be cancelled and malls and commercial centers closed.
Belgium interior minister Jan Jambon said authorities were looking not just for Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam who managed to slip past French security forces after the carnage.
He warned that the capture of Abdeslam, a Belgian-born 26-yearold whose brother Brahim blew himself up at a cafe in Paris, would not in itself end the threat.
“It involves several suspects and that is why we have put in place such exceptional measures,” the Belga news agency cited Jambon as telling Flemish television.
Justice Minister Koen Geens said in a separate Belga report he expected the metro to re-open on Monday “if all passes off normally... We are not going to paralyse Brussels economically.”
Western leaders, meanwhile, vowed to stand up to IS, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more; the suicide bombings in Beirut that killed 43 people and injured more than 200; and the downing of the Russian airline carrying 224 people in Sinai. All happened within the past month.
France has intensified its aerial bombing in Syria and Le Drian said French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which has been sent to help operations against IS militants in Syria, will be “operational” from Monday and “ready to act.”
French President Francois Hollande is scheduled to meet in Paris with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday, and will travel to Washington and Moscow later in the week to push for a stronger international coalition against IS.