LUCY CAULKETT
Belgium has today raised its security alert to the highest level, after the devastating terrorist attack that killed 28 people. Planes and trains were diverted, and people where instructed to stay were they were for most of the day.
Authorities released a photo taken from closed-circuit TV of three men pushing luggage carts, identifying two of the men dressed in black as the suicide bombers, and the third — dressed in a light-colored coat, black hat and glasses — said to still be at large. The capture of the fugitive remains uppermost in the minds of police.
Police found a nail-filled bomb, chemical products and an Islamic State flag in the search of a house in the Schaerbeek neighborhood, the state prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
TIGHTENED SECURITY
Airports across Europe — and in the New York area — tightened security.
“We are at war,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after a crisis meeting in Paris. “We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war.”
French President Francois Hollande said in a statement: “Terrorists struck Brussels, but it was Europe that was targeted, and it is all the world which is concerned by this.”
European officials have long anticipated a major attack and warned that the Islamic State group was actively preparing to strike. The arrest of Salah Abdeslam for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris was a contributing factor to the fears of an imminent attack, and the attack within a short space of time since his capture underlines how wide the terrorist net is in the world.
RESPONSIBILITY
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks, saying in a post on the group’s Amaq news agency that its extremists opened fire in the airport and “several of them” detonated suicide belts. They also claimed responsibility for another suicide attack that occured
in the subway. The post claimed the attack was in response to Belgium’s support of the international coalition arrayed against the group.
Authorities neutralized a third bomb at the airport once the chaos after the two initial blasts had eased, said Florence Muls, a spokeswoman for the airport told The Associated Press.
BOMB SQUADS
Bomb squads subsequently detonated suspicious objects found in over two locations elsewhere in the capital, but neither contained explosives.
Abdeslam told authorities after his arrest four days ago that he had created a new network and was planning new attacks. The threats call for serious measures to protect the public here in the U.K, America, and the rest of Europe. The Brussel attacks will no doubt influence the debate of whether to remain in The EU, and will add fuel to the ammunition of Euro skeptics ahead of this summers referendum, with the enormity of the threats likely to sway voters further away from remaining in The EU.
PLEDGE
U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to “do whatever is necessary” to help Belgian authorities seek justice.
“We stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people,” Obama said in Havana, after concluding a 3 day visit there. The war on terror is a very serious one and should transcend political interests or political allegiance with respect to the EU debate. Belgium’s heightened security alert will also heighten our own alert, but our security services have so far been on top of things.