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| Shabby Brussels flat belies the coordinated atrocities plotted within | Shabby Brussels flat belies the coordinated atrocities plotted within |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The four men staying at a top-floor flat in Schaerbeek, north-west Brussels didn’t talk much to their neighbours. | |
| The grey, five-storey corner building on a quiet street was shabby and in the process of being decorated. It had recently been sold, locals said, and housed quite a few short-term lets. The Post-it notes and layers of sticky tape used to stick new residents’ names near the buzzers suggested it was a building whose tenants changed often. | |
| The letterboxes were all stuffed to overflowing with junk mail and supermarket coupon catalogues. In the small entrance hallway, a bare bulb poked from a broken light, there was paint dotted across the old mosaic-tiled floor and signs of decorating work going on the first floor. | The letterboxes were all stuffed to overflowing with junk mail and supermarket coupon catalogues. In the small entrance hallway, a bare bulb poked from a broken light, there was paint dotted across the old mosaic-tiled floor and signs of decorating work going on the first floor. |
| “I spoke to them once, there were two brothers,” said a local painter and decorator of the mysterious group of men who had spent time on the fifth floor. “I saw one of them in the lift only once – he had a beard – but he never spoke, and the others I never saw at all,” said Jairo Valderana, a Colombian who lived next door to them on the fifth floor, his front-door metres away from the men’s hideout. Valderana, who arrived in Brussels with his wife and daughters, aged 14 and 18, a month ago said he had never heard anything strange from the flat until police arrived on Tuesday night shouting at all the neighbours to put their hands up. | “I spoke to them once, there were two brothers,” said a local painter and decorator of the mysterious group of men who had spent time on the fifth floor. “I saw one of them in the lift only once – he had a beard – but he never spoke, and the others I never saw at all,” said Jairo Valderana, a Colombian who lived next door to them on the fifth floor, his front-door metres away from the men’s hideout. Valderana, who arrived in Brussels with his wife and daughters, aged 14 and 18, a month ago said he had never heard anything strange from the flat until police arrived on Tuesday night shouting at all the neighbours to put their hands up. |
| On Tuesday at dawn, it was from this fifth-floor flat that three men ordered a taxi to Zaventem airport. When the driver arrived to collect them, they were reportedly angry that they could not fit all their luggage in the boot and they left behind one of their five bags. On arriving at the airport departures terminal, they refused to let the taxi driver help unload the bags, which the driver found odd. | On Tuesday at dawn, it was from this fifth-floor flat that three men ordered a taxi to Zaventem airport. When the driver arrived to collect them, they were reportedly angry that they could not fit all their luggage in the boot and they left behind one of their five bags. On arriving at the airport departures terminal, they refused to let the taxi driver help unload the bags, which the driver found odd. |
| Soon afterwards, one of the men, heavily built Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29, who had been carrying explosive material in his bag, blew himself up at the airport terminal alongside a second as yet unidentified bomber who also died. The third man dressed in a light jacket, hat and glasses, whose luggage contained the biggest bomb, is thought to have left his bag and ran out of the terminal before the explosions. His bag later exploded, causing no casualties, as police bomb disposal teams arrived at the scene. He is still on the run. | Soon afterwards, one of the men, heavily built Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29, who had been carrying explosive material in his bag, blew himself up at the airport terminal alongside a second as yet unidentified bomber who also died. The third man dressed in a light jacket, hat and glasses, whose luggage contained the biggest bomb, is thought to have left his bag and ran out of the terminal before the explosions. His bag later exploded, causing no casualties, as police bomb disposal teams arrived at the scene. He is still on the run. |
| Just over an hour later, el-Bakraoui’s younger brother, Khalid, 27, blew himself up in a suicide bomb on the Brussels metro. In total, 31 were killed and 270 injured in the worse attacks ever on the Belgian capital. | Just over an hour later, el-Bakraoui’s younger brother, Khalid, 27, blew himself up in a suicide bomb on the Brussels metro. In total, 31 were killed and 270 injured in the worse attacks ever on the Belgian capital. |
| When the taxi driver later contacted police, a vast area of Schaerbeek was put under police lockdown as specialist armed teams raided the apartment at 4 Max Roos Street. Afraid they might find more gunmen or suicide bombers, officers evacuated the area shouting to locals about the risk of getting caught in gunfire. | When the taxi driver later contacted police, a vast area of Schaerbeek was put under police lockdown as specialist armed teams raided the apartment at 4 Max Roos Street. Afraid they might find more gunmen or suicide bombers, officers evacuated the area shouting to locals about the risk of getting caught in gunfire. |
| The flat was empty but police discovered a makeshift bomb factory. In the apartment were 15kg of explosives, 150 litres of acetone, 30 litres of oxygenated water, detonators, a suitcase filled with screws and nails as well as materials, such as plastic boxes, needed to pack the explosives. Another man arrested nearby is still being questioned. | The flat was empty but police discovered a makeshift bomb factory. In the apartment were 15kg of explosives, 150 litres of acetone, 30 litres of oxygenated water, detonators, a suitcase filled with screws and nails as well as materials, such as plastic boxes, needed to pack the explosives. Another man arrested nearby is still being questioned. |
| Police found in a bin a laptop that contained the elder el-Bakraoui’s will and notes, in which he had written that he was “in a rush”, and that he “didn’t know what to do”, that he felt he was being hunted and was “no longer safe”. | Police found in a bin a laptop that contained the elder el-Bakraoui’s will and notes, in which he had written that he was “in a rush”, and that he “didn’t know what to do”, that he felt he was being hunted and was “no longer safe”. |
| He feared “ending up in a cell like him”. This was interpreted by the police as a reference to Salah Abdeslam, the key suspect in November’s Paris attacks, who after four months on the run, was finally cornered by police in Brussels last week and is now in an isolation cell in Belgium’s highest-security prison. | He feared “ending up in a cell like him”. This was interpreted by the police as a reference to Salah Abdeslam, the key suspect in November’s Paris attacks, who after four months on the run, was finally cornered by police in Brussels last week and is now in an isolation cell in Belgium’s highest-security prison. |
| The el-Bakraoui brothers’ suicide bombings suggest that the Brussels attacks are directly linked to the Paris attacks that killed 130 people. | The el-Bakraoui brothers’ suicide bombings suggest that the Brussels attacks are directly linked to the Paris attacks that killed 130 people. |
| The brothers’ suspected logistics role in the Paris attacks suggests that both strikes drew on the same jihadi cell. This network was made up in part of young Brussels men who had known each other for years, some with childhood or even family ties. The el-Bakraouis are the second set of brothers involved after Salah Abdeslam and his elder brother, who blew himself up in Paris. Another suspect on the run, Mohamed Abrini, had a younger brother who died in Syria aged 20, fighting with members of the same group. | The brothers’ suspected logistics role in the Paris attacks suggests that both strikes drew on the same jihadi cell. This network was made up in part of young Brussels men who had known each other for years, some with childhood or even family ties. The el-Bakraouis are the second set of brothers involved after Salah Abdeslam and his elder brother, who blew himself up in Paris. Another suspect on the run, Mohamed Abrini, had a younger brother who died in Syria aged 20, fighting with members of the same group. |
| The el-Bakraoui brothers had a profile that differed from several of the younger Paris attackers. Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was deported from Turkey last June with a warning that he was a militant, which the Turkish authorities have claimed Belgium ignored. It is unclear whether either brother ever arrived in Syria to fight. | The el-Bakraoui brothers had a profile that differed from several of the younger Paris attackers. Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was deported from Turkey last June with a warning that he was a militant, which the Turkish authorities have claimed Belgium ignored. It is unclear whether either brother ever arrived in Syria to fight. |
| What is clear is that both el-Bakraouis have the profile of hardened and reckless armed criminals who had served time in prison before becoming involved with jihadi terrorists on their home turf in Brussels. | What is clear is that both el-Bakraouis have the profile of hardened and reckless armed criminals who had served time in prison before becoming involved with jihadi terrorists on their home turf in Brussels. |
| Like Amedy Coulibaly, the Frenchman who carried out a bloody siege at a Paris kosher supermarket following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January last year, the el-Bakraouis displayed almost suicidal behaviour in police chases following armed robberies in their youth. Also like Coulibaly, it was seemingly not until after they had served time in prison that their links to radical jihadism developed. | Like Amedy Coulibaly, the Frenchman who carried out a bloody siege at a Paris kosher supermarket following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January last year, the el-Bakraouis displayed almost suicidal behaviour in police chases following armed robberies in their youth. Also like Coulibaly, it was seemingly not until after they had served time in prison that their links to radical jihadism developed. |
| Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, the oldest brother, had been sentenced to nine years in 2011 for an attempted robbery of a Western Union branch in Brussels. During the robbery, when an employee had escaped into the street screaming, the police had pursued the robbers. El-Bakraoui fired on police using heavy weapons, injuring an officer in the foot before hiding out in a flat. His DNA was later also found on Kalashnikovs in a basement. | |
| In 2012, Khalid el-Bakraoui served time in prison for a violent car-jacking. Released in 2014, he had been sought since mid-2015 for breaching parole conditions. | In 2012, Khalid el-Bakraoui served time in prison for a violent car-jacking. Released in 2014, he had been sought since mid-2015 for breaching parole conditions. |
| But it is still uncertain when or through who the brothers became radicalised. | But it is still uncertain when or through who the brothers became radicalised. |
| As referenced in Ibrahim el-Bakraoui’s final note on his computer, the brothers had been hunted and on the run from police for a week since an anti-terrorist raid on a flat in the quiet Forest area of south-west Brussels last Tuesday. The younger brother had rented that flat apparently as a hideout for Paris attackers. One Paris accomplice, the Algerian Mohamed Belkaïd, was shot dead there as he prepared to fire a Kalashnikov. | As referenced in Ibrahim el-Bakraoui’s final note on his computer, the brothers had been hunted and on the run from police for a week since an anti-terrorist raid on a flat in the quiet Forest area of south-west Brussels last Tuesday. The younger brother had rented that flat apparently as a hideout for Paris attackers. One Paris accomplice, the Algerian Mohamed Belkaïd, was shot dead there as he prepared to fire a Kalashnikov. |
| Heavy weapons and an Islamic State flag were found at the Forest flat, along with Abdeslam’s fingerprints. Khalid el-Bakraoui is also known to have rented another hideout in Charleroi, southern Belgium, where the Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud met suicide bombers and from where he set off to lead the November assault on the French capital. | Heavy weapons and an Islamic State flag were found at the Forest flat, along with Abdeslam’s fingerprints. Khalid el-Bakraoui is also known to have rented another hideout in Charleroi, southern Belgium, where the Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud met suicide bombers and from where he set off to lead the November assault on the French capital. |
| The el-Bakraoui brothers, with their gangland connections, may also have provided weapons for the Paris attacks in which gunmen opened fire on bars and at a rock concert at the Bataclan, the Belgian state broadcaster RTBF reported. | The el-Bakraoui brothers, with their gangland connections, may also have provided weapons for the Paris attacks in which gunmen opened fire on bars and at a rock concert at the Bataclan, the Belgian state broadcaster RTBF reported. |
| After the bombmaking factory was found at the fifth-floor flat this week, Schaerbeek, an area of Brussels with a mix of grandiose and handsome villas and more disadvantaged, densely populated streets, has become one of the main focal points in the Brussels attacks investigation. | |
| “It’s so quiet round here, maybe that’s why they hid here,” said a Belgian artisan butcher doors away from the hideout. Schaerbeek’s mayor, Bernard Clerfayt, warned against wrongly stigmatising the district. | “It’s so quiet round here, maybe that’s why they hid here,” said a Belgian artisan butcher doors away from the hideout. Schaerbeek’s mayor, Bernard Clerfayt, warned against wrongly stigmatising the district. |
| Several of the Paris suspects had at some point passed through Schaerbeek. Another flat there had been rented under a false identity in September 2015, two months before the Paris attacks, where explosive material were later found along with a drawing of a person wearing a belt. A fingerprint of Abdeslam was found there along with DNA from Bilal Hadfi, who was part of the suicide bomb team at France’s national stadium during the Paris attacks. Abdeslam is believed to have remained hidden in Schaerbeek for several weeks after fleeing Paris on the night of the attacks. | Several of the Paris suspects had at some point passed through Schaerbeek. Another flat there had been rented under a false identity in September 2015, two months before the Paris attacks, where explosive material were later found along with a drawing of a person wearing a belt. A fingerprint of Abdeslam was found there along with DNA from Bilal Hadfi, who was part of the suicide bomb team at France’s national stadium during the Paris attacks. Abdeslam is believed to have remained hidden in Schaerbeek for several weeks after fleeing Paris on the night of the attacks. |
| The other key suspect in the Brussels airport bombing, Najim Laachraoui, 24, grew up in Schaerbeck after his family arrived from Morocco when he was a child. Laachraoui – who media have reported could be the on-the-run airport bomber pictured on CCTV in a hat and light jacket, or could have blown himself up in the airport – is believed to have been a bomb-maker and logistics planner for the Paris attack. | The other key suspect in the Brussels airport bombing, Najim Laachraoui, 24, grew up in Schaerbeck after his family arrived from Morocco when he was a child. Laachraoui – who media have reported could be the on-the-run airport bomber pictured on CCTV in a hat and light jacket, or could have blown himself up in the airport – is believed to have been a bomb-maker and logistics planner for the Paris attack. |
| Related: It is no surprise siblings with past crimes carried out attacks on Brussels | Related: It is no surprise siblings with past crimes carried out attacks on Brussels |
| Laachraoui is said to have made the homecrafted TATP-filled suicide vests used in the Paris attacks. A French police official told the Associated Press that Laachraoui’s DNA was found on all of the vests as well as in a Brussels apartment where they were thought to have been made. TATP was among the bomb-making materials found this week at the Schaerbeek flat linked to the Brussels attacks. Laachraoui had also been stopped, under his alias, in a Mercedes at a checkpoint with Abdeslam as they crossed from Hungary to Austria in September last year, but he was then released. | |
| Just as Abdeslam was found hiding in Molenbeek not far from his parents’ home, the latest bomb factory was found barely a mile from where Laachraoui went to school at a red-brick Catholic secondary, La Sainte-Famille, in another area of Schaerbeek. | Just as Abdeslam was found hiding in Molenbeek not far from his parents’ home, the latest bomb factory was found barely a mile from where Laachraoui went to school at a red-brick Catholic secondary, La Sainte-Famille, in another area of Schaerbeek. |
| The headteacher, Veronica Pellegrini, said Laachraoui had been a pupil there from the age of 12 to 18 and left in 2009. “His school career was totally normal, he never had to repeat a year, there were no incidents on his school record,” she said. His brother had been a local martial arts star but his sports club said they would not talk about the family. | The headteacher, Veronica Pellegrini, said Laachraoui had been a pupil there from the age of 12 to 18 and left in 2009. “His school career was totally normal, he never had to repeat a year, there were no incidents on his school record,” she said. His brother had been a local martial arts star but his sports club said they would not talk about the family. |
| Before the Brussels attacks, police had been searching for Laachraoui as a suspected accomplice of Abdeslam. He was well-known to police and is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2013 and been key in a ring recruiting Belgian youths for jihad. In 2014 an international arrest warrant was issued against him. | Before the Brussels attacks, police had been searching for Laachraoui as a suspected accomplice of Abdeslam. He was well-known to police and is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2013 and been key in a ring recruiting Belgian youths for jihad. In 2014 an international arrest warrant was issued against him. |
| Since December, police investigating the Paris attacks have been looking for a man under the alias of Soufiane Kayal who it recently emerged was Laachraoui. His DNA was found in two hideouts used by Paris attackers and on explosive material. | Since December, police investigating the Paris attacks have been looking for a man under the alias of Soufiane Kayal who it recently emerged was Laachraoui. His DNA was found in two hideouts used by Paris attackers and on explosive material. |
| Links might prove to go back even further to what is known as the “Verviers cell”. Police killed two gunmen in a shootout in the town of Verviers near the German border just after the Charlie Hebdo and kosher grocery attacks on Paris in January 2015. Police at the time said they had foiled a jihadist plot. | Links might prove to go back even further to what is known as the “Verviers cell”. Police killed two gunmen in a shootout in the town of Verviers near the German border just after the Charlie Hebdo and kosher grocery attacks on Paris in January 2015. Police at the time said they had foiled a jihadist plot. |
| Le Monde has reported that the Verviers network, which included Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had envisaged attacking an airport. | Le Monde has reported that the Verviers network, which included Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had envisaged attacking an airport. |