TerrorismBelgian police arrest two suspects linked to November’s Paris terror attacks
Two suspects have been detained by Belgian police in connection with Tuesday’s shooting during a house raid in Brussels, in which another suspect was killed. The operation is linked to investigations into November’s Islamist attacks in Paris.
Belgian VTM TV reported Wednesday that police had been searching for two suspects who fled after officers killed an unidentified armed person Tuesday, during a firefight which erupted during what officers had expected to be a routine search.
Bloomberg reports that the shootout began on Tuesday afternoon in Brussels’ southern neighborhood of Forest. A suspect armed with a Kalashnikov rifle was killed during the operation. He was identified as Mohamed Belkaid, a 35-year old Algerian man illegally residing in Belgium. Belgian federal prosecutor Thierry Werts said that an ISIS flag, a Salafist Muslim book, and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were found beside his body.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that the search was continuing, adding that it was “linked to the attacks in Paris.”
Three police officers were wounded during the Tuesday firefight, while a fourth was hit by gunfire during the police mobilization which followed.
Justice Minister Koen Geens said that a French policewoman, who had been helping in a joint French-Belgian investigation, was among the three officers wounded in the initial exchanges.
Michel convened a security and intelligence chiefs emergency meeting Wednesday.
Michel told RTL radio Wednesday that the police plan additional operations in the coming days. “The threat remains,” he said. He added that Belgium would review its level of alertness and consider possible extra measures during the day.
DW reports that Belgian security forces have been searching for suspects and associates of the militants involved in the November 2015 Paris attacks. One of the prime suspects, 26-year-old Brussels-based Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, is still on the run. He left Paris hours after his brother blew himself up outside a cafe.
Abdeslam stayed for three weeks after the Paris attacks in an apartment in the Schaerbeek district in north Brussels.
Ten people who have been arrested in the months since the attacks, mostly for helping Abdeslam, are in policy custody.
Since Tuesday, there has been an increase and police and military presence on the streets of Brussels.
