Belgian soldiers on Brussels' streets. (AP/Alastair Grant)
Belgium’s Justice Minister Koen Geens. (AP/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
“There’s no such thing as ‘normal’ anymore,” Brussels’ mayor said in wake of last week’s Muslim terror attacks.
Belgium’s justice minister pleaded Tuesday for critics of Belgium’s intelligence failures to focus on the hunt for those behind last week’s Islamic attacks on Brussels and November’s massacre in Paris.
Investigators say they are still looking for at least one suspect in the attacks seven days ago, when suicide bombers killed 35 people at Brussels’ airport and in a subway station near the European Union headquarters. Three suicide bombers also blew themselves up.
The Health Ministry and victims identification officials said 90 people remain in hospital, a third of them suffering from severe burns. In a joint press conference they said the 35 dead include 17 Belgians and 15 foreigners, while 44 of the wounded are foreigners from 20 nations.
Belgium has faced rising international criticism over its evident inability to identify and monitor Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists living in the Belgian capital who have been deemed responsible both for the March 22 bombings in Brussels and the November 13 attacks on Paris nightspots that left 132 dead. Several of those who killed themselves during the attacks or were subsequently arrested were Belgian nationals of North African background.
“Now is not the time to fight one another. As far as I know, the enemy is in Syria,” Justice Minister Koen Geens said, referring to the primary power base of the Islamic State terrorist group that claimed responsibility for both attacks.
But authorities in Belgium and the neighboring Netherlands faced fresh questions Tuesday about how much they knew in advance of the March 22 bombings. Turkey already has revealed it deported one of the suicide bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, to the Netherlands in mid-2015 after catching him near the Syrian border and identifying him to Dutch authorities as a suspected ISIS terrorist.
‘Did we miss anything? Certainly’
Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said Tuesday that his country’s security services received a note from the FBI on March 16 detailing what he called the “radical and terrorist background” of the El Bakraoui brothers. One, Ibrahim, blew himself up alongside an accomplice at the airport, while the other brother, Khalid, detonated a bomb inside a train leaving the Maelbeek subway station.
The timing of the note and why it was sent to the Dutch remained unclear. Belgian authorities said Tuesday they were not informed of its existence and had no idea where the El Bakroaui brothers were before the Brussels bombings.
Belgium has voiced determination to toughen its security powers. On Tuesday, a parliamentary committee approved anti-terror proposals to give police round-the-clock powers for house searches, to improve the Belgian data base on terrorists, and to increase phone-tapping powers. The full parliament has yet to consider these measures.
Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur, who faces criticism for his own actions before and after the suicide bombings, said Belgian authorities must learn painful lessons and improve their ability to combat Islamic terrorism.
“Were there mistakes? Did we miss anything? Certainly. Otherwise these attacks would not have happened,” Mayeur said. Brussels, he suggested, would never feel the same.
“There’s no such thing as ‘normal’ anymore,” he said during a visit to Paris.
“I Think This is Not Over”
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo pledged solidarity with Belgium as it begins “a long and painful process of grieving and reconstruction.”
Brussels’ airport has yet to reopen since the attacks but has been testing a temporary check-in system for use in coming days. The subway system is mostly running again, though under heavy guard.
The Maelbeek station, hit by a suicide bomber in the morning rush hour, remains closed.
Passengers said they presumed the March 22 attacks would not be the last on Brussels.
“I think this is not over,” said Franz Alderweireldt, an 82-year-old taking a train at a subway station next to Maelbeek.
“When terrorists plan an attack, they will do it no matter what,” Alderweireldt said, “even if there are dozens or hundreds of soldiers or police on the street.”
By: AP
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