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Tense commuters, politicians: No more ‘normal’ in Brussels Tense commuters, politicians: No more ‘normal’ in Brussels
(about 5 hours later)
BRUSSELS — One week after the airport and subway attacks in Brussels, Belgium’s justice minister on Tuesday pleaded for an end to the political backstabbing about what went wrong in the investigation and handling of violent extremism, as authorities hunted for fresh clues about the network behind the killings and last year’s Paris bloodshed. BRUSSELS — Belgium’s justice minister pleaded Tuesday for critics of Belgium’s intelligence failures to focus on the hunt for those behind last week’s Brussels attacks and November’s massacre in Paris.
Investigators are still looking for at least one suspect in the March 22 attacks that killed at least 35 people. Due to Belgium’s complex decision-making processes, criticism has grown that the country is a soft target and that its security services are ill-equipped to deal with extremist networks. Investigators say they are still looking for at least one suspect in the attacks seven days ago, when suicide bombers killed 32 people at Brussels’ airport and in a subway station near the European Union headquarters. Three suicide bombers also blew themselves up.
“Now is not the time to fight one another. As far as I know, the enemy is in Syria,” Justice Minister Koen Geens said Tuesday. 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 32 dead include 17 Belgians and 15 foreigners, while 44 of the wounded are foreigners from 20 nations.
In the wake of the Paris attacks that killed 130 people, Belgium came under intense criticism since much of the atrocity was at least prepared and coordinated in and around Brussels, and several of the attackers were Belgian or had lived in Brussels for a long time. Belgium has faced rising international criticism over its evident inability to identify and monitor Islamic State activists living in the Belgian capital who have been deemed responsible both for the March 22 bombings in Brussels and the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris nightspots that left 130 dead. Several of those who killed themselves during the attacks or were subsequently arrested were Belgian nationals of North African background.
In recent days, there have been accusations that investigators should have picked up the scent of the attackers well before March 22. One of the suicide bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, had been caught near Turkey’s border with Syria in 2015 and Ankara says it had warned Belgium and the Netherlands that he was “a foreign terrorist fighter.” Authorities in Brussels said they did not know he was suspected of terror-related activities until after he was deported to the Netherlands. “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 extremist group that claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur, who is facing criticism for his own actions before and after the suicide bombings, said in Paris on Tuesday, that “there are certainly some analyses to be done on the investigation. Were there mistakes? Did we miss anything? Certainly. Otherwise these attacks would not have happened.” 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 IS militant.
He said his city, which is headquarters to European Union institutions, could never go back to “normal” again. “There’s no such thing as ‘normal’ anymore. That’s a concept we have to revisit.” 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 extremists, 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 militancy.
“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.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo pledged solidarity with Belgium as it begins “a long and painful process of grieving and reconstruction.”Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo pledged solidarity with Belgium as it begins “a long and painful process of grieving and reconstruction.”
The airport has yet to reopen since the attacks but it has been testing a temporary check-in system for use in the coming days. The subway system is mostly running again, though under heavy guard. 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, remained closed. One stop away, Franz Alderweireldt, 82, who takes the subway every day, said “I think this is not over.” The Maelbeek station, hit by a suicide bomber in the morning rush hour, remains closed.
He said that “when terrorists plan an attack, they will do it no matter what, even if there are dozens or hundreds of soldiers or police on the street.” 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.”
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Helene Franchineau in Brussels contributed. Associated Press reporter Lori Hinnant in Brussels contributed to this story.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.