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Belgian authorities: Brothers carried out Islamic State suicide attacks Belgian prosecutor: Anti-terror crackdowns may have spurred attackers
(about 2 hours later)
BRUSSELS — Authorities uncovered bomb material and a farewell message from a suspected suicide bomber Wednesday as details emerged of the Brussels attackers: two brothers who brought chaos and carnage to the city at the heart of European unity. BRUSSELS — The men who brought chaos and carnage to Brussels may have been spurred to act by fears that counterterrorism agents were closing in, according to a message linked to one of the suspected suicide bombers that was described by authorities Wednesday.
One person was taken into custody, then released, as authorities tried to chase down possible leads for a key suspect on the run: a man whose bomb failed to explode at Brussels Airport. The details of the missive, contained in a discarded computer, do not specifically cite recent raids across Belgium, including one that netted a key suspect in last year’s Paris attacks. But its tone suggests a sense that the noose was tightening, according to Belgium’s federal prosecutor, Frederic Van Leeuw.
But the brothers — Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, both Belgians with criminal records — were identified by authorities as suspected of being among the three suicide bombers who attacked the Brussels metro and airport on Tuesday, claiming at least 31 lives and injuring 270 people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. The message also gives apparent insight into the tactics, organization and motivation of the militants who perpetrated the worst terrorist attack on Belgian soil since World War II, and possibly a deeper look into the wider network linked to last year’s Paris massacres.
[‘People who died weren’t whole anymore. They were in pieces.’][‘People who died weren’t whole anymore. They were in pieces.’]
The pair also opened links to last year’s Paris massacres. Authorities believe both had connections to Salah Abdeslam, who helped carry out the bloody siege in November and was apprehended last week by Belgian authorities. In the note — discovered on a computer dumped near an apartment holding bomb-making material — one of the suspected suicide attackers, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, apparently described feeling pressure bearing down.
The probes increasingly suggest a web that draws together the Paris plot — hatched mostly in Brussels — and Tuesday’s blasts that struck in the shadows of offices directing the Western alliance NATO and the European Union. He wrote that he was “in a hurry, no longer know what to do, being searched for everywhere, no longer secure,” according to Van Leeuw’s description of the message, which was not made public.
As part of the manhunt and investigations, security officials found a will in a trash can at the apartment of Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29, the elder brother. It read: “I would rather die than end up in a cell.” Bakraoui, 29, was identified by authorities as among three suicide bombers — his younger brother Khalid, 27, and another man — who struck Brussels airport and a metro station in back-to-back attacks, killing at least 31 people and injuring 270.
He is suspected of perpetrating a suicide attack at the airport. The younger brother was identified by his fingerprints in the metro attack, prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said. A fourth suspect — whose airport bomb failed to detonate — is still at large for attacks purportedly carried out by the Islamic State.
Officials also found a vast cache of bomb-making materials in Ibrahim el-Bakraoui’s apartment in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels: 33 pounds of TATP explosives, nearly 40 gallons of acetone, detonators and a suitcase full of nails, the prosecutor said. Authorities now believe they had close connections to the Paris attackers.
The same bombmaker may have been involved in both attacks, and Khalid el-Bakraoui is believed to have used an assumed name to rent a Brussels area apartment from which the November attacks were planned.
The computer file does not mention Abdeslam by name, but it says the attackers feared that if they did not strike quickly, they risked winding up in prison alongside “him.”
[Who is the suspected bombmaker?][Who is the suspected bombmaker?]
One of the brothers, said a Belgian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity had used a false name to rent an apartment in Forest neighborhood of Brussels that was raided on March 15. Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found there, providing the vital clue that helped lead to his arrest. “If they drag on, they risk finishing next to him in a cell,” Van Leeuw said, paraphrasing the content of the file.
Belgian media initially reported that a suspect arrested Wednesday was 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui, whom European security officials have described as a suspected Islamic State bombmaker. But those reports were later retracted, and Van Leeuw said Laachraoui was still being sought. Van Leeuw described the file as a “will” discovered on a computer. He did not explain why authorities believed the computer belonged to Ibrahim el-Bakraoui.
Authorities also found large stockpiles of bomb-building materials at his apartment in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels, the prosecutor said: 33 pounds of TATP explosives, 150 liters of acetone, 30 liters of hydrogen peroxide, detonators and a suitcase full of nails and screws.
Khalid, the younger brother, was identified by his DNA in the attack on the subway, the prosecutor said. Ibrahim was identified by fingerprints recovered at the scene of the airport blast.
Belgian media initially reported that a suspect arrested Wednesday was 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui, whom European security officials have described as a suspected Islamic State bombmaker.
But those reports were later retracted, and Van Leeuw said Laachraoui was still being sought. His DNA was found on at least one bomb used in the Paris attacks.
[Likely explosives used nicknamed “Mother of Satan”][Likely explosives used nicknamed “Mother of Satan”]
Laachraoui remained a target of the manhunt, however, and his DNA was found on at least one bomb used in the Paris attacks. It all has left European leaders again scrambling for ways to plug holes in security.
In further signs of jitters across Belgium, sports officials called off a soccer match between Belgium and Portugal scheduled for Tuesday in Brussels “because of security concerns.” Brussels Airport will remain closed at least through Thursday, officials said. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls repeated calls for sweeping new powers to be given to European intelligence agencies, warning that the future of European unity is at stake.
Laachraoui, a Belgian who was born in Morocco and raised in the Schaerbeek neighborhood, is believed to have trained in Syria and then returned to Europe. “If the European project is running out of steam, if the populists are gaining in popularity, it’s because a lot of speeches are not followed up in reality,” Valls said Wednesday, criticizing the vows for reform that have followed other recent terrorist attacks but yielded few concrete changes.
His DNA was found on one of the explosive belts from November’s Paris attacks, and he is thought to have traveled at one point with Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving suspect believed to have played a direct role in the Paris massacre. Abdeslam was captured Friday in a raid on an apartment building in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels. “In the years to come, the [E.U.] member states will have to invest massively in their security systems,” he said.
Tuesday’s mass killings added Brussels to a somber list of European capitals that have been struck in the past year by deadly attacks either perpetrated or inspired by the Islamic State, including Paris and Copenhagen. In further signs of jitters across Belgium, sports officials called off a soccer match between Belgium and Portugal scheduled for Tuesday in Brussels “because of security concerns.”
Authorities had been bracing for an attack in Belgium for months as the country has struggled to stem a tide of homegrown extremism and as the Islamic State has repeatedly threatened to hit Europe in its core. Brussels Airport will remain closed at least through Thursday, officials said. At Brussels’s main synogogue, events marking the Purim holiday were called off.
But when the attacks finally came, the magnitude was stunning. The day’s violence represented the worst on Belgian soil since World War II. [Belgium’s synagogues go quiet for Jewish holiday of Purim]
[How the Brussels attacks could force Obama to betray his policy instincts] Authorities had been bracing for a possible attack in Belgium for months as the country has struggled to stem a tide of homegrown extremism and as the Islamic State has repeatedly threatened to hit Europe in its core.
The targets in Brussels — home of the European Union and NATO — also appeared to have been chosen for their symbolic value and for their ease of access.
“What we had feared has happened,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. “This is a black moment for our country.”“What we had feared has happened,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. “This is a black moment for our country.”
The apparently coordinated explosions created a renewed sense of threat that spilled far beyond Brussels, as authorities boosted police patrols in cities such as Paris, London and Washington. [How the Brussels attacks could force Obama to betray his policy instincts]
The targets in Brussels — home of the European Union and NATO — appeared to have been chosen for their symbolic value and for their ease of access.
The attackers first struck with twin bombings at the international airport, where early-morning travelers were preparing to board flights linking Brussels to cities across the continent and around the world. An hour later, a subway car transiting beneath the modernist glass-and-steel high-rises that house the E.U. erupted in smoke and flame.The attackers first struck with twin bombings at the international airport, where early-morning travelers were preparing to board flights linking Brussels to cities across the continent and around the world. An hour later, a subway car transiting beneath the modernist glass-and-steel high-rises that house the E.U. erupted in smoke and flame.
Some of the injured lost limbs as shrapnel from the blasts radiated through packed crowds. Cellphone video recorded in the minutes after the airport blasts showed children cowering on a bloody floor amid the maimed and the dead.Some of the injured lost limbs as shrapnel from the blasts radiated through packed crowds. Cellphone video recorded in the minutes after the airport blasts showed children cowering on a bloody floor amid the maimed and the dead.
The attack at the airport could have been far worse, said Belgium’s federal prosecutor, Frederick Van Leeuw. The biggest bomb — packed inside the suitcase that was wheeled on a cart by the man now being sought by a massive dragnet — failed to go off, he told reporters. The attack at the airport could have been far worse, said Belgium’s federal prosecutor, Van Leeuw. The biggest bomb — packed inside the suitcase that was wheeled on a cart by the man now being sought by a massive dragnet — failed to go off, he told reporters.
[Has terrorism become the new normal in Europe?]
Surveillance camera images show the man, wearing a hat pulled low, next to Ibrahim Bakaouri and another man — still unidentified who is believed to have died in the blasts. All three are walking through the airport departure hall with apparent explosive-packed cases on trolley carts.Surveillance camera images show the man, wearing a hat pulled low, next to Ibrahim Bakaouri and another man — still unidentified who is believed to have died in the blasts. All three are walking through the airport departure hall with apparent explosive-packed cases on trolley carts.
Images from a subway station revealed desperate scenes as people dressed for a day’s work stumbled from the mangled wreckage into a smoke-drenched tunnel.Images from a subway station revealed desperate scenes as people dressed for a day’s work stumbled from the mangled wreckage into a smoke-drenched tunnel.
Authorities acknowledged that they had been readying for an attack. But nothing like this, they said.Authorities acknowledged that they had been readying for an attack. But nothing like this, they said.
“We never could have imagined something of this scale,” Interior Minister Jan Jambon told Belgian television station RTL.“We never could have imagined something of this scale,” Interior Minister Jan Jambon told Belgian television station RTL.
[Has terrorism become the new normal in Europe?]
A taxi driver who drove the attackers to the airport later led police to an apartment in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels, where investigators found explosive devices loaded with nails and chemicals, along with an Islamic State flag.
“It was exactly the same type of bomb as at the airport,” the senior official said.
Within hours of Tuesday’s assault, the Islamic State asserted responsibility for the attacks, according to a statement posted on the Amaq Agency, a website believed to be close to the extremist group. The message said Belgium was targeted because of its participation in an international coalition battling the group in Syria and Iraq. U.S. and European security officials said they believed the claim to be credible.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said “approximately a dozen” Americans were injured in the blasts, but “a number” of U.S. citizens remained unaccounted for on Wednesday — without providing more specific figures.In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said “approximately a dozen” Americans were injured in the blasts, but “a number” of U.S. citizens remained unaccounted for on Wednesday — without providing more specific figures.
[How Belgium became a hub for militants][How Belgium became a hub for militants]
The State Department also issued an alert on traveling in Europe, urging Americans to avoid crowded places and to exercise caution during religious holidays and at large festivals or events.The State Department also issued an alert on traveling in Europe, urging Americans to avoid crowded places and to exercise caution during religious holidays and at large festivals or events.
Europe has struggled mightily with spillover from the churning conflict in Syria. Thousands of European citizens have traveled there to fight in a war that has become a focal point for jihadists around the world. Many have returned to Europe radicalized. Europe has vowed to confront them.Europe has struggled mightily with spillover from the churning conflict in Syria. Thousands of European citizens have traveled there to fight in a war that has become a focal point for jihadists around the world. Many have returned to Europe radicalized. Europe has vowed to confront them.
“This is a kind of scenario every capital in Europe feared since the November attacks last year. A mixture of foreign fighters coming back with experience, local sympathizers on the other hand,” said Rik Coolsaet, a terrorism expert at Ghent University who has advised the Belgian government on how to fight radicalization. “You have such a large number of soft targets, and you cannot secure all of them.”“This is a kind of scenario every capital in Europe feared since the November attacks last year. A mixture of foreign fighters coming back with experience, local sympathizers on the other hand,” said Rik Coolsaet, a terrorism expert at Ghent University who has advised the Belgian government on how to fight radicalization. “You have such a large number of soft targets, and you cannot secure all of them.”
An earlier version of this story noted reports by Belgian media, citing police sources, that the suspect arrested appeared to be alleged bombmaker Najim Laachraoui. Belgian media later amended the reports to say the identity of the suspect was not known.
James McAuley and Anthony Faiola in Brussels, Daniela Deane and Karla Adam in London, and Brian Murphy, Carol Morello and Matt Zapotosky in Washington contributed to this report.James McAuley and Anthony Faiola in Brussels, Daniela Deane and Karla Adam in London, and Brian Murphy, Carol Morello and Matt Zapotosky in Washington contributed to this report.
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