Prime Suspect of Brussels Attack Identified as 2nd Suicide Bomber
The Brussels airport attacker still at large has been identified as 25 year old Najim Laachraoui.
- Third Brussels suspect, identified as 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui. Manhunt on for Lacchraoui.
- Lacchraoui has been identified as the second suicide bomber by a Belgian newspaper.
- Laachraoui’s DNA has been found in the houses used by the Paris attackers last year.
- Two suicide bombers have been identified as brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui.
- US secretary of state John Kerry to travel to Belgium on Friday: State department spokesman.
- The two are suspected to have been known to the Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam, arrested a week before Brussels attack.
- Jet Airways arranges for the family of injured crew members to be flown to Belgium.
- Zaventem Airport in Brussels will remain closed on Friday.
The royal family and ministers of Belgium pay tribute to the victims of Brussels attack.
Prime Suspect Maybe Dead
Second Brussels airport suicide bomber identified as Najim Laachraoui - De Standaard newspaper cites source.
A manhunt was launched by the authorities to find him, under suspicion of being responsible for the blast on Zaventem airport.
Prosecutors earlier on Wednesday named one of the bombers and said a second bomber, pictured in a group of three men at the airport, was still unidentified. The third man is being sought.
Kerry to Visit Brussels
US secretary of state Kerry to travel to Belgium on Friday to meet Belgian and European Union officials, State department spokesman has said.
One of Brussels Attackers Deported From Turkey in 2015: Erdogan
Turkish presidency of Tayyip Erdogan has identified the militant detained by Turkey in June 2015 as Ibrahim El Kakraoi – one of the two brothers also linked to the Paris attacks.
He was let go as the Turkish authorities did not find any terror links. Turkey subsequently warned Belgium that he was a militant who was deported at his own request.
Khalid and his brother Ibrahim, who blew himself up at Brussels Airport, were already known to Belgian authorities for violent crime.
Khalid, 27, was sentenced in 2011 to five years in prison for carjacking. Ibrahim, 30, was jailed in 2010 for shooting a Kalashnikov assault rifle at police after a robbery. Released in 2014, he has been sought since mid-2015 for breaching parole conditions.
Obama Extends Support
US President Barack Obama has extended all support to Belgium while speaking in Argentina on Wednesday, 23 March.
Obama’s statement has come as the US house intelligence chairman said that the Belgium attacks seemed to target Americans, airport bombing near US airline counters.
Stranded Indian Jet Airways’ Passengers to be Flown out of Brussels
Sushma Swaraj, Indian Minister of External Affairs, has said that she has co-ordinated with Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways, to fly the Indian passengers to Amsterdam.
Memorial for Victims o f Brussels Attack
People in Brussels, Belgium create a memorial to mourn the people who died in the attacks.
The death toll in the attacks on the Belgian capital, home to the European Union and NATO, rose to at least 31 with some 260 wounded, Belgian Health Minister Maggie De Block said on VRT television.
Security remains high with a strong military and police guard Brussel’s Zaventem Airport.
EU Justice, Law Ministers to Visit Brussels
The Justice and Law ministers of the European Union will meet in Brussels following the terror attack, Netherlands has said.
Netherlands, which holds the rolling presidency of the union currently, has tweeted.
Belgium Confirms Brothers Were Suicide Bombers
Two brothers carried out suicide bombings at Brussels airport and on the metro, Frederic Van Leeuw the federal prosecutor confirmed.
He added that airport bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui had left a will on a computer that was found.
His brother Khalid, blew himself up on a carriage of the Brussels metro at Maelbeek station, Frederic Van Leeuw told a news conference.
Two other men captured on CCTV at the airport with Ibrahim are yet to be identified, he said.
Indian Missing in Brussels
Raghavendran Ganesh, an Infosys employee who was in Brussels at the time of the attack, has been missing since Tuesday. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs is working with the company to track Ganesh down.
Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, has said that the ministry is on the lookout for Ganesh, who works at the Bangalore office of Infosys.
Belgian Media: Brussels Prime Suspect Not Arrested
The Belgian media, which earlier reported the arrest of the prime suspect in the bomb attacks in Brussels, said the person detained was not, in fact, Najim Laachraoui.
Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique along with DH had reported that the police had indeed arrested the prime suspect Najim Laachraoui. However, DH, which first reported the story, withdrew it after learning that the man detained in the Anderlecht district had been misidentified.
Police and prosecutors had initially declined to comment.
Indians Affected by Brussels Attack
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said that the ministry is on the lookout for Indians who are injured or stranded in Brussels.
Third Suspect Arrested
Najim Laachraoui, the suspect in the Brussels attacks, has been arrested in Anderlecht, according to local media reports.
The federal prosecutor’s office is seeking information, including tip-offs from the public, about 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui.
Laachraoui allegedly traveled to Hungary in 2015 with Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris attacks. He is also said to have traveled to Syria in February 2013.
The prosecutor’s office also said Laachraoui was checked by guards at the Austria-Hungary border, while driving in a Mercedes with Abdeslam and one other person.
French PM Asks EU to Authorise a PNR Covering Europe
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls is urging the EU parliament to get going on authorising a passenger name record (PNR) covering Europe, AP reported.
Injured Jet Airways Crew Members Admitted to Hospital
Jet Airways assured the safety of the two crew members who were injured in the blasts at the Zaventem airport.
Quoting Jet Airways’ official statement, ANI reported that both Nidhi Chaphekar and Amit Motwani have been admitted to hospitals and are getting the required medical care.
Arrangements have been made for family members of the injured crew to travel to Brussels, the statement added.
Brussels Airport Attacker Still at Large Identified as Najim Laachraoui
The Brussels airport attacker still at large is Najim Laachraoui, 25, a man who was already being sought by the police since Monday, Belgian newspaper DH said.
Laachraoui’s DNA has been found in houses used by the Paris attackers last year, prosecutors said on Monday, and he had travelled to Hungary in September with Paris attacks prime suspect Salah Abdeslam, Reuters reported.
Suicide Bombers Were Brothers with Criminal History
The two suicide bombers who carried out the attacks in Brussels airport on Tuesday were brothers Khalid and Brahim El Bakraoui, residents of Brussels, known to the police as criminals, the RTBF public broadcaster said, quoting an unnamed source.
Reuters reported that Khalid had rented the flat in the Forest borough of the Belgian capital under a false name, where police killed a gunman in a raid last week, RTBF said.
After that raid, investigators found an Islamic State flag, an assault rifle, detonators and a fingerprint of Paris attacks prime suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested three days later.
Both brothers have criminal records, but have not been linked by the police to terrorism until now.
Brussels Under Attack, Jet Airways Gets 3 Threats Calls in a Day
Three Jet Airways flights received bomb threats on Tuesday. Of the three flights – one from Delhi and another from Mumbai – had landed just a while before the twin bomb blasts at the Brussels airport, data from aviation website Flightradar 24 showed on Monday.
Brussels Attacks Raise Questions About Global Airport Security
Two explosions in the departure hall of Brussels Airport on Tuesday prompted other countries to tighten airport security and raised questions about how soon passengers should be screened when entering terminals. Security is tight at European airports, with passengers and their bags undergoing checks for weapons and explosives before being allowed onto planes, but those checks typically take place only after check-in.
US Feared Possibility of Brussels Attack But Lacked Intel Warning
The United States lacked specific intelligence warning of Tuesday’s attacks in Belgium but strongly believed that such a strike was possible, particularly after the arrest of Salah Abdeslam in Belgium, a US official said. Abdeslam is a key suspect in the Paris attacks.
One of the main US lines of inquiry is that even though the attack may represent retaliation for the arrest of Abdeslam, it was likely already in the works before his arrest.
Brussels Attacks Another Reminder of Belgian Security’s Weak Link
The Belgian government warned at the weekend that there might be an attack after the security services captured their most wanted man. It came swiftly.
Belgium has announced 400 million euros ($450 million) of extra spending to upgrade its security capabilities since it emerged that the country of 11 million people served as the base for the Paris attackers who killed 130 people.
But Tuesday’s bombings show how much further it still has to go.
Brussels Attack: Police Hunt for Third Suspect, Release CCTV Image
Belgian police are hunting an Islamic State suspect seen with two supposed suicide bombers shortly before they struck Zaventem Airport in Brussels in the first of two attacks that also hit the city’s metro, killing at least 30 and wounding over 200.
Investigators said they were focusing on a man in a hat who was caught on CCTV pushing a laden baggage trolley at the airport with two others they believed were the bombers. An unused explosive device was later found at the airport and a man was seen running away from the terminal after the explosions.
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