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Expanding Portraits of Brussels Bombers, Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui
Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui: From Bank Robbers to Brussels Bombers
(about 1 hour later)
Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui grew up in Laeken, a working-class neighborhood in northwest Brussels, not far from the Royal Palace. Their father, a retired butcher, is a devout Muslim who emigrated from Morocco; their mother is conservative and reclusive. Just two years apart in age, the brothers shared burly features, and, by their mid-20s, had amassed a formidable record of violent crime.
The two Belgian brothers who blew themselves and 31 other people up in Brussels on Tuesday started out as carjackers and bank robbers before graduating to terrorism.
Belgian investigators are racing to assemble a fuller portrait of the brothers, who — along with at least two accomplices — carried out the suicide attacks in Brussels on Tuesday that killed 31 people.
Investigators are racing to assemble a fuller portrait of Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui who — along with at least two accomplices — carried out the suicide attacks at Brussels Airport and a subway station.
Here is a summary of what is known about each man, based on details from public records, official announcements, and interviews with neighbors, lawyers and law enforcement officials.
Here is what is known about each man, based on public records, official announcements, and interviews with neighbors, lawyers and law enforcement officials.
Born in Brussels on Oct. 9, 1986, he was raised in Belgium.
Ibrahim, 29, and Khalid, 27, grew up in Laeken, a working-class neighborhood in northwest Brussels, not far from the Royal Palace. Their father, a retired butcher, is a devout Muslim who emigrated from Morocco; their mother is conservative and reclusive. The brothers shared burly features, and, by their mid-20s, had amassed a formidable record of violent crime.
• Jan. 30, 2010: Acts as a lookout for two accomplices in an attempted raid on a Western Union office in central Brussels. Surprised by a police patrol, Mr. Bakraoui opens fire with a Kalashnikov rifle, hitting a police officer in the leg. When the three try to escape, they crash their car and hide in a house in Laeken until they surrender.
Khalid appears to have gotten an earlier start on his criminal career: He participated in at least four carjackings and a bank robbery in the fall of 2009.
• August 2010: Receives a nine-year prison sentence for attempted murder. His accomplices are also sentenced: Belkacem Boulkoumite, the planner of the heist, to four years; and Jawad Benhattal, the driver, to six.
On Oct. 27, 2009, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, he and two accomplices kidnapped a bank employee, forced her to drive to a Brussels branch of the AXA bank and deactivate the alarm. They stole 41,000 euros ($60,764 at the time).
• October 2014: Paroled by a court, against the recommendations of a prison board. The conditions include mandatory monthly visits with a probation officer, and Mr. Bakraoui is prohibited from leaving Belgium for longer than a month.
About two weeks later, Khalid carjacked an Audi S3 and was found later that same night in a Brussels warehouse full of stolen cars. He was detained, but ultimately was not charged.
• June 20, 2015: Detained in Gaziantep, Turkey, along the border with Syria.
It was not until September 2011 that a Belgian court convicted him of criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, possession of stolen cars and possession of weapons, and sentenced him to five years in prison, less time served. He was paroled in 2013 or 2014.
• July 14, 2015: The Turkish authorities notify Belgian officials that they have detained Mr. Bakraoui. They put him on a plane to the Netherlands, at his request.
His brother, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, was the lookout for a robbery attempt in January 2010 at a Western Union branch in central Brussels. Surprised by a police patrol, Ibrahim opened fire with a Kalashnikov, hitting a police officer in the leg. As he and his accomplices tried to escape, they crashed their car and were forced to hide in a house in Laeken, the neighborhood where the Bakraoui brothers grew up, before surrendering to police.
• July 20, 2015: Belgian officials tell Turkish officials that they were aware of Mr. Bakraoui but did not know of any links he had to terrorism, according to the Turkish government.
Ibrahim was sentenced in August 2010 to nine years in prison for attempted murder and received parole in October 2014. As part of his parole, he was prohibited from leaving the country for longer than a month.
• Aug. 21, 2015: A judge in Belgium revokes Mr. Bakraoui’s probation, according to the Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure.
In June 2015, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was detained in Gaziantep, Turkey, along the border with Syria. The Turkish authorities said they notified Belgian officials that they had detained him, warned them that he “was a foreign terrorist fighter,” and put him on a plane to the Netherlands, at his request.
• March 22: Mr. Bakraoui blows himself up at 7:58 a.m. in the departure hall at Brussels Airport, along with a second suicide bomber who has not been identified. At least one accomplice flees. Hours later, a taxicab driver leads the authorities to a house in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels, where they find large quantities of explosives and bomb-making equipment. In a trash can outside, investigators find a computer with Mr. Bakraoui’s will. In the document, he says that he is being sought and no longer feels safe and that if he dallies, he risks ending up “next to him in a cell” — referring, possibly, to Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the Paris attack who was arrested in Brussels on March 18.
An arrest warrant was issued by Interpol for Khalid el-Bakraoui (several months after his brother was detained in Turkey) at the behest of the Belgian authorities, evidently because he had violated the conditions of his own parole.
• March 23: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey discloses that his government had detained Mr. Bakraoui last year. “Despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter, the Belgian authorities could not identify a link to terrorism,” he said.
Perhaps because of that warrant, he used an alias — Ibrahim Maaroufi — to rent an apartment in September 2015 in Charleroi, Belgium, about 40 miles south of Brussels. That apartment was used as a safe house by some of the terrorists who carried out the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.
• March 24: Belgian officials acknowledge lapses in communication. “With the passing on of the information from Turkey and with the passing on of the information within Belgium, we have been slower than one could have expected under those circumstances,” Justice Minister Koen Geens tells reporters. “So, the information was passed on, but we have not been diligent, or probably not diligent enough.” Mr. Geens offers his resignation to Prime Minister Charles Michel; it is declined.
The Bakraoui brothers evaded the police officers investigating the Paris attacks.
Born in Brussels on Jan. 12, 1989, and raised with his brother there.
Earlier this month, the authorities raided the apartment in Forest that Khalid had rented. A suspect, Mohamed Belkaid, 35, was killed and four police officers were injured. Two men escaped; it is not clear if they were the Bakraoui brothers.
• Sept. 2, 2009: Participates in the carjacking of a Volkswagen Polo.
The police had been searching for Salah Abdeslam, one of the Paris attackers who had been on the run for four months. A fingerprint belonging to Mr. Abdeslam was found in the apartment. A week later, on March 18, he was arrested at a different apartment in Brussels.
• October 2009: Suspected of involvement in a home invasion and robbery, but is not charged because of insufficient evidence.
His arrest may have put pressure on Ibrahim, who wrote in his will, found by police after Tuesday’s attacks, that he feared ending up “next to him in a cell” — referring, possibly, to Mr. Abdeslam.
• Oct. 27, 2009: With two accomplices, Mr. Bakraoui kidnaps a bank employee, forcing her to drive to an AXA bank branch and deactivate the alarm. They steal 41,000 euros ($60,764 at the time). The bank employee later identifies Mr. Bakraoui as one of her abductors, and says he carried a Kalashnikov.
Ibrahim el-Bakraoui blew himself up at 7:58 a.m. on Tuesday in the departure hall at Brussels Airport, along with a second suicide bomber who has not been identified. At least one accomplice fled.
• Nov. 1-2, 2009: Participates in the carjacking of a Volkswagen Golf.
At 9:11 a.m., Khalid blew himself up inside the second car of a subway train as it was pulling out of the Maelbeek station in Brussels toward the Arts-Loi station, to the west.
• Nov. 9, 2009: Participates in the carjacking of an Audi S3. That night, he and three accomplices are arrested in a warehouse in Brussels containing stolen cars. Mr. Bakraoui is detained, but is ultimately not charged with the theft of the cars.
Hours later, the authorities found large quantities of explosives and bomb-making equipment in a house in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels, where the brothers had stayed.
• Sept. 27, 2011: A court convicts him in Belgium of criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, possession of stolen cars, possession of weapons, and sentences him to five years in prison, less time served. His accomplices — Yassine Dibi, Mohammed Nouiyer and Youssef Siraj — also receive prison sentences.
• 2013 or 2014: Released, on condition that he wear an ankle monitor, according to a defense lawyer.
• August 2015: Interpol issues an arrest warrant for Mr. Bakraoui at the behest of the Belgian authorities, evidently because he had violated the conditions of his parole.
• Sept. 3, 2015: Under the alias Ibrahim Maaroufi, Mr. Bakraoui rents an apartment in Charleroi, Belgium, about 40 miles south of Brussels. The apartment is later used as a safe house by participants in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.
• Dec. 9, 2015: Fingerprints belonging to two of the Paris attackers, Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Bilal Hadfi, are found in the Charleroi house.
• Dec. 11, 2015: A judge in Belgium issues an international and European arrest warrant for Mr. Bakraoui in connection with the investigation into the Paris attacks.
• March 15: A suspect — Mohamed Belkaid, 35 — is killed and four police officers are injured during a police raid on an apartment in the Forest section of Brussels that Khalid al-Bakraoui is believed to have rented, and where the police find a fingerprint of Salah Abeslam, who is suspected of having been one of the paris attackers. Two men escape during the raid, but it is unclear whether they are the Bakraoui brothers.
• March 22: At 9:11 a.m., Mr. Bakraoui blows himself up inside the second car of a subway train as it is pulling out of the Maelbeek station in Brussels toward the Arts-Loi station, to the west.
