Brussels airport bombers targeted US, Jews – probe
BRUSSELS — The Islamic State suicide bombers who attacked Brussels airport last year targeted passengers travelling to the United States and also Jewish people, several sources told AFP.
The Belgian-led investigation believes a check-in counter for an American carrier was one of the targets in the March 22, 2016 attacks, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
They also suspect that travellers to Israel may have been in the crosshairs, and that airport security camera footage shows one bomber apparently pursuing Hasidic Jews seconds before one of the blasts.
Islamic State (IS) bombers Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim El Bakraoui killed 16 people at Zaventem airport. Around an hour later Bakraoui's brother Khalid attacked a metro station near EU headquarters, killing another 16.
One source close to the investigation told AFP, which contacted investigators in several countries, that one of the airport bombers "attacked the Delta Airlines check-in".
"We know they wanted to target Americans," said the source, who asked not to be named. "It's clear they had quite specific targets."
Asked if these targets included the checkin counter for a flight to Israel, he replied: "We know they were obsessed with the Israelis too."
The possibility that they targeted Russian travellers was an "option" that had to be clarified, he said.
There were casualties from at least 40 nationalities in the Brussels attacks, but investigators and sources believe the Zaventem bombers had specific targets.
"Even early on (in the investigation) there were indications that they targeted US, Russian and Israeli check-in counters," a US law enforcement source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"That understanding has held up with later investigations, including with Abrini's alleged confession," the source said.
Mohamed Abrini is the so-called "man in the hat" who fled the airport without detonating his suitcase bomb after his accomplices set off theirs. He was captured a month later.
Four Americans were killed at the airport and several injured, while two Israelis aged 23 and 28 were treated in Jerusalem after the attacks.
Israeli media identified the pair as members of the Belz Hassid ultra-Orthodox religious sect, who had been scheduled to fly from Brussels airport to Ben Gurion.
Sources close to the investigation added that camera footage never released to the public showed that Laachraoui had been standing among some 60 high school students before deciding to pursue two Orthodox Jews.