Raids, arrests but no weapons
BELGIAN police have detained 16 people in 22 raids but Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslam was not among them.
Despite the raids, authorities ymaintained their highest terror alert in the capital for a third straight day.
Federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said 19 raids were carried out in Molenbeek and other boroughs of Brussels and three raids were undertaken in other cities.
‘‘We have to stress that no firearms or explosives were discovered . . . during the raids,’’ Van Der Sypt said. ‘‘Certain elements in the investigation made Sunday’s intervention necessary. The investigation will in any case be relentlessly continued.’’
One of those detained was hurt when a car he was in tried to ram police during an attempted getaway, Van Der Sypt said.
The raids capped a tense day, with hundreds of troops patrolling and authorities hunting for one or more suspected militants.
The Belgian Government chose to keep the capital on the highest state of alert into the start of the work week to prevent a Paris-style attack.
Citing a ‘‘serious and imminent’’ threat, Prime Minister Charles Michel said that schools and universities in Brussels would be closed today (local time), with the subway remaining shut down, preventing a return to normal in the city that is also home to the European Union’s main institutions.
‘‘We fear an attack like in Paris, with several individuals, perhaps in several places,’’ Michel said after chairing a meeting of Belgium’s National Security Council.
While Brussels was kept on the highest of four alert levels, the rest of the country remains on a Level 3 alert, meaning an attack is ‘‘possible and likely’’.
‘‘Nobody is pleased with such a situation. Neither are we. But we have to take our responsibility,’’ Michel said.
Western leaders stepped up the rhetoric against the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more; suicide bombings in Beirut that killed 43 people and injured more than 200; and the downing of the Russian jetliner carrying 224 people in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. All happened within the past month.
‘‘We will not accept the idea that terrorist assaults on restaurants and theatres and hotels are the new normal, or that we are powerless to stop them,’’ US President Barack Obama said in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
French Defence Minister JeanYves Le Drian said Isis must be destroyed at all costs. ‘‘We must annihilate Islamic State worldwide . . . and we must destroy Islamic State on its own territory,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s the only possible direction.’’
Abdeslam is believed to have played a key role in the November 13 attacks in France. He is known to have crossed into Belgium the day after the attacks.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon warned that the threat would not necessarily disappear if Abdeslam was found, because they are looking for several people in connection with a possible planned attack in Brussels.
‘‘The terror threat is wider than just that person,’’ Jambon said. ‘‘We are looking at several things. That is why we are making the big show of power and following everything up by the minute. It’s of no use to hide this.’’
Several of the Paris attackers had lived in Brussels, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the plot’s orchestrator who was killed last week in a standoff with French police.
Abdeslam is known to have crossed into Belgium on November 14. His brother, Mohamed Abdeslam, has urged him to surrender, saying he would rather see him ‘‘in prison than in a cemetery’’.
France has intensified its aerial bombing in Syria and Le Drian said the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which has been sent to the Mediterranean to help combat Isis militants in Syria, would be ‘‘operational’’ from today.
Also today, French President Francois Hollande is scheduled to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron in Paris and will travel to Washington and Moscow later in the week to push for a stronger international coalition against Isis.