Tag Archives: Belgium

Morocco arrests Belgian national allegedly tied to Paris attackers

RABAT (Reuters) – Moroccan authorities have arrested a Belgian national of local origin directly linked to the attackers who carried out the Paris shootings and bombings in November that killed 130 people, the government said in a statement on Monday.

The interior ministry gave only the suspect’s initials in Arabic and said he fought in Syria with al-Nusra front before joining the Islamic State.

The suspect, whose initials could be translated to J.A. or G.A., was arrested on Jan. 15 in the city of Mohammedia, the statement added. “He went to Syria with one of the suicide bombers of Saint Denis,” it said.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian militant who authorities said was the ringleader of the Paris attacks, was killed with other suspects days after when police raided a house in the Saint Denis suburb.

Investigations showed that during his stay in Syria he has built solid ties with Islamic State leaders including the ringleader of the Paris attacks.

The suspect was trained to handle different weapons and guerrilla tactics but left Syria through Turkey, Germany, Belgium then Netherlands from where he came to Morocco.

Morocco provided the tip-off that enabled French police to locate Abaaoud, has been holding Abaaoud’s brother Yassine since October and has issued an arrest warrant for Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of taking part in the attacks and is on the run.

(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Patrick Markey/Jeremy Gaunt)

Belgium says found possible Paris attacks bomb factory in December raid

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian investigators believe explosives used in the attacks in Paris in November may have been made in an apartment in Brussels that was rented under a false name and where a fingerprint of a key fugitive was found.

Police found material that could be used to make explosives, traces of explosive acetone peroxide and handmade belts during a raid on the apartment on Dec. 10, federal prosecutors said in a statement on Friday.

Belgian newspaper De Standaard, which reported the raid in its Friday edition, said the investigators believed the explosives were probably packed into suicide belts in a hotel outside Paris in the lead-up to the Nov. 13 attacks.

Prosecutors investigating Belgian links to the Paris attacks said the apartment in the district of Schaerbeek had been rented under a false name that might have been used by a person already in custody in connection with the Paris attacks.

The find adds to indications that the Nov. 13 shooting and suicide bomb attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed, were at least partially planned in Belgium.

Two of the attackers had been living in Brussels and Belgian authorities have arrested 10 people.

Investigators also found a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam, the brother of one of the attackers, who returned from Paris the morning after the attacks and has still not been found.

Many of those arrested in Belgium have links to Abdeslam, including two who drove from Brussels hours after the attacks to pick him up and another who drove him from one part of Brussels to Schaerbeek after his return.

According to De Standaard, investigators believe the fingerprint indicates Abdeslam used the flat as a safe house after the attacks, given signs that the apartment had been partially cleaned up, although they do not know how long he stayed there.

Belgian media also said this week investigators also now believe that two men controlled the Nov. 13 attacks by sending SMS text messages from Belgium during the evening.

Prosecutors appealed to the public for help on Dec. 4 in the hunt for these two men who traveled with Abdeslam to Hungary in September using fake identity cards with the names Samir Bouzid and Soufiane Kayal. Grainy images of their faces are shown on the federal police’s website.

The two, clearly older than the attackers, are believe to have played a pivotal role, according to Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique, in assuring logistics for the operation that was months in the planning.

The same false identity of Soufiane Kayal was used to rent a property in the Belgian town of Auvelais that possibly served as a safe house.

The other false identity card, for Samir Bouzid, was used four days after the attacks to transfer 750 euros at a Western Union office in Brussels to Hasna Aitboulahcen, who died in a police assault in St Denis on Nov. 18.

Separately, federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw warned in an interview on broadcaster VTM late on Thursday that the Jan. 15 anniversary of a foiled attack on Belgian soil could prompt someone to launch an attack in the country.

“We know that they opt for symbolic dates although on the other hand no one knows why Charlie Hebdo took place on Jan. 7,” he said.

(Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Belgium Rescues Over 200 Syrian Christians In Secret Operation

The Belgian government has carried out a secret operation to rescue 240 people, over 200 of them Christians, from the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The Christians will be taken to Belgium and offered asylum by the Belgian government.

The secret two-month operation is still being mostly shrouded in secrecy by the Belgian government, likely to keep sources protected from Islamic extremists in the region.

“We did it via civil society organizations which could get them out of there,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson.

“The minority Christians were selected by a citizen ‘action committee’ run by a Belgian diplomat and a psychiatrist with a network of contacts in the country,” AFP news agency wrote. “They left Aleppo in small groups and in seven phases.”

Belgium has taken in about 5,500 refugees from Syria since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

“This is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation,” UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “It is a population that needs the support of the world but is instead living in dire conditions and sinking deeper into poverty.”

Belgian Doctor Tells Jewish Woman To Go To Gaza For Treatment

Belgian officials who have been trying to downplay a heavy rise in anti-Semitism since the start of the current Gaza conflict are reeling after reports a doctor told a Jewish woman to go to Gaza for treatment of a fractured rib.

A doctor working a medical hotline in Flanders, Belgium told the son of a Jewish woman that he would not come out to treat her for a fractured rib when he called at 11 p.m. Wednesday.  The doctor hung up on the son the first time, then when the son called again the doctor said to “send her to Gaza for a few hours, then she’ll get rid of the pain.”

Health ministry officials say they are looking into the incident.  The doctor told officials he knew the patient had to be Jewish because of her son’s accent.

An alderman of the Antwerp district council who knows the Jewish family called the doctor and recorded the conversation where he admitted refusing to treat the Jewish woman and telling her to go to Gaza.

Also in the last week, a Jewish woman was refused service at a clothing store because she was a Jew.  A restaurant in Liege posted a sign that said dogs were welcome in their restaurant but Zionists and Jews were not allowed inside their building.

Two Major Anti-Semitic Attacks In Europe

Four people are dead and two injured after a pair of anti-semitic attacks in Europe.

The deadly attack came in Brussels, Belgium, where a gunman walked into a Jewish museum and opened fire.  The gunman reportedly double parked his car outside the museum, casually strolled inside and opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle.

The gunman had clearly been planning the attack according to police officials who saw the security footage.  The gunman walked in and out within a minute, obviously executing some kind of timed attack.  Witnesses say the gunman jogged to his car and causally pulled away.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but the terrorism alert level in Belgium has been raised because of the assault.

Hours later in Paris, two Jewish youths leaving a service at a synagogue were attacked by men on bikes.  The 21-year-old and 18-year-old brothers were beaten heavily with brass knuckles and are hospitalized in serious condition but are believed to make a full recovery.

Human Trafficking Ring Busted In Europe

Authorities in England, France and Belgium have broken up a major human trafficking ring that preyed on immigrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan.

The UK Border Agency raided 35 locations yesterday while France and Belgium carried out 40 raids. The raids were spread out over the entire countries instead of focusing on only one major city. Continue reading →