After Brussels attacks, Islamic State video calls for jihad
Reuters | Mar 24, 2016, 08.19 PM IST
Special police forces stand guard outside a building in Brussels, on March 24, 2016, during investigations int... Read More
CAIRO/BRUSSELS: The Islamic State jihadist group released a video on social media on Thursday calling on its followers to claim victory and wage jihad after deadly blasts in Brussels this week that the group said it had carried out.
In the footage, Islamic State (ISIS) noted that Belgium was part of the coalition fighting militants in the Middle East. It featured the training of Belgian militants suspected in the November 13 shooting and suicide bombing rampage by Islamic State that killed 130 people in Paris.
Belgian police were on Thursday hunting for a third man filmed with two Islamic State suicide bombers at Brussels airport as evidence piled up that the same jihadist network was involved in the deadly Paris attacks last November.
With pressure mounting on Europe to improve cooperation against terrorism, EU interior and justice ministers were to hold emergency talks on a joint response to Tuesday's bombings in Brussels, which killed at least 31 people and injured hundreds.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls led calls for a "strong European response", but officials say many states, including France, withhold their most cherished data despite a mantra of willingness to share intelligence.
Brussels metro bomber linked to Paris attacks
Earlier on Thursday, Belgian prosecutors confirmed they issued an international arrest warrant in December for one of two brothers blamed for deadly bomb blasts in Brussels this week because he was wanted in connection with last year's Paris attacks.
Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, blew himself up on a crowded rush hour train in Brussels on Tuesday, prosecutors have said.
They confirmed in a statement on Thursday that he was previously suspected of using a false identity to rent a property in the Belgian city of Charleroi, which was used as a safe house by members of an Islamist cell that carried out the November Paris attacks.
Belgian police searched the property on December 9 and issued an international arrest warrant for Bakraoui on December 11. His details and photo appear on a list of wanted people on the website of Interpol.
Prosecutors say his brother Ibrahim, 29, had been one of two men who blew themselves up at Brussels airport in the coordinated attacks on Tuesday.
Belgian ministers offered resignation
Meanwhile, Belgium's interior and justice ministers offered to resign on Thursday over the failure to track an Islamic State jihadist expelled by Turkey last year who blew himself up at Brussels airport on Tuesday.
Interior minister Jan Jambon said Prime Minister Charles Michel had asked him to stay on — "In time of war, you cannot leave the field," Jambon told VTM television.
Justice minister Koen Geens also offered to go but would stay on, a ministry spokesperson said.
Belgian authorities are facing embarrassment after Turkey said on Wednesday that last year Ankara expelled back to Europe Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on Tuesday, and warned Belgium he was a militant.
While other militant suspects have not been held on the grounds of lack of evidence, Bakraoui was on parole and barely half-way through a 9-year sentence for armed robbery.
"You can ask how it came about that someone was let out so early and that we missed the chance to seize him when he was in Turkey. I understand the questions," Jambon said. "In the circumstances, it was right to take political responsibility."
In the footage, Islamic State (ISIS) noted that Belgium was part of the coalition fighting militants in the Middle East. It featured the training of Belgian militants suspected in the November 13 shooting and suicide bombing rampage by Islamic State that killed 130 people in Paris.
Belgian police were on Thursday hunting for a third man filmed with two Islamic State suicide bombers at Brussels airport as evidence piled up that the same jihadist network was involved in the deadly Paris attacks last November.
With pressure mounting on Europe to improve cooperation against terrorism, EU interior and justice ministers were to hold emergency talks on a joint response to Tuesday's bombings in Brussels, which killed at least 31 people and injured hundreds.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls led calls for a "strong European response", but officials say many states, including France, withhold their most cherished data despite a mantra of willingness to share intelligence.
Brussels metro bomber linked to Paris attacks
Earlier on Thursday, Belgian prosecutors confirmed they issued an international arrest warrant in December for one of two brothers blamed for deadly bomb blasts in Brussels this week because he was wanted in connection with last year's Paris attacks.
Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, blew himself up on a crowded rush hour train in Brussels on Tuesday, prosecutors have said.
They confirmed in a statement on Thursday that he was previously suspected of using a false identity to rent a property in the Belgian city of Charleroi, which was used as a safe house by members of an Islamist cell that carried out the November Paris attacks.
Belgian police searched the property on December 9 and issued an international arrest warrant for Bakraoui on December 11. His details and photo appear on a list of wanted people on the website of Interpol.
Prosecutors say his brother Ibrahim, 29, had been one of two men who blew themselves up at Brussels airport in the coordinated attacks on Tuesday.
Belgian ministers offered resignation
Meanwhile, Belgium's interior and justice ministers offered to resign on Thursday over the failure to track an Islamic State jihadist expelled by Turkey last year who blew himself up at Brussels airport on Tuesday.
Interior minister Jan Jambon said Prime Minister Charles Michel had asked him to stay on — "In time of war, you cannot leave the field," Jambon told VTM television.
Justice minister Koen Geens also offered to go but would stay on, a ministry spokesperson said.
Belgian authorities are facing embarrassment after Turkey said on Wednesday that last year Ankara expelled back to Europe Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on Tuesday, and warned Belgium he was a militant.
Top Comment
Time to launch a crusade against this evil ideology.While other militant suspects have not been held on the grounds of lack of evidence, Bakraoui was on parole and barely half-way through a 9-year sentence for armed robbery.
"You can ask how it came about that someone was let out so early and that we missed the chance to seize him when he was in Turkey. I understand the questions," Jambon said. "In the circumstances, it was right to take political responsibility."
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Paris suspect Abdeslam wants quick extradition
AFP | Mar 24, 2016, 06.54 PM IST
BRUSSELS: Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam wants to be extradited to France "as soon as possible" to face charges following his arrest in Brussels, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Asked if his client had prior knowledge about Tuesday's suicide bombings at Brussels airport and on a metro train, lawyer Sven Mary said in English: "He didn't know it."
Abdeslam has been held in a high security jail in Bruges, northwest of Brussels since his arrest on Friday, just four days before this week's attacks in the Belgian capital.
Europe's most wanted man had been on the run for four months after the November 13 Paris suicide bomb and gun attacks in which 130 people were killed.
He is believed to be the last survivor from the cell of 10 men who carried out the massacre. His lawyer initially said he would oppose moves by France to obtain his extradition quickly.
But speaking outside the city law courts early on Thursday, Mary said Abdeslam had changed his mind.
"Salah Abdeslam told me that he wishes to leave for France as soon as possible," Mary said. "I will ask the investigating magistrate not to oppose his departure." He added: "The most important part of the file is in France. His explanations have to go there."
Mary did not reiterate his claim made earlier on French radio that Abdeslam has not cooperated with investigators since the attacks in the Belgian capital.
"This is confidential," he said outside the law courts when asked.
He had been asked earlier by Europe 1 radio if Abdeslam had cooperated with the investigators following the triple bomb attack in Brussels. Mary said: "No".
"I don't want him to close up again. If he closes up again, we will be facing more cases like Zaventem and the Bataclan," he told the radio, referring to Brussels airport hit Tuesday and the Paris concert hall struck by jihadists on November 13.
Asked if his client had prior knowledge about Tuesday's suicide bombings at Brussels airport and on a metro train, lawyer Sven Mary said in English: "He didn't know it."
Abdeslam has been held in a high security jail in Bruges, northwest of Brussels since his arrest on Friday, just four days before this week's attacks in the Belgian capital.
Europe's most wanted man had been on the run for four months after the November 13 Paris suicide bomb and gun attacks in which 130 people were killed.
He is believed to be the last survivor from the cell of 10 men who carried out the massacre. His lawyer initially said he would oppose moves by France to obtain his extradition quickly.
But speaking outside the city law courts early on Thursday, Mary said Abdeslam had changed his mind.
"Salah Abdeslam told me that he wishes to leave for France as soon as possible," Mary said. "I will ask the investigating magistrate not to oppose his departure." He added: "The most important part of the file is in France. His explanations have to go there."
Mary did not reiterate his claim made earlier on French radio that Abdeslam has not cooperated with investigators since the attacks in the Belgian capital.
"This is confidential," he said outside the law courts when asked.
He had been asked earlier by Europe 1 radio if Abdeslam had cooperated with the investigators following the triple bomb attack in Brussels. Mary said: "No".
"I don't want him to close up again. If he closes up again, we will be facing more cases like Zaventem and the Bataclan," he told the radio, referring to Brussels airport hit Tuesday and the Paris concert hall struck by jihadists on November 13.
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Last call of missing Indian in Brussels tracked to metro, says government
PTI | Mar 24, 2016, 03.15 PM IST
File photo of Raghavendran Ganesh.
NEW DELHI: The last phone call of Infosys employee from Bengaluru who has gone missing in Brussels since Tuesday's deadly terror strike, has been tracked to a metro rail in the Belgian capital, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday.
Indian Embassy in Brussels is making efforts to locate Raghavendran Ganesh since the terror attacks at the Brussels airport and the metro which left 31 dead and 300 injured.
"Raghavendran Ganesh -- We have tracked his last call in Brussels. He was travelling in the metro rail," Swaraj tweeted on Thursday.
"We are doing our best to locate Raghavendran Ganesh," Swaraj had said on Wednesday.
Two Jet Airways crew members -- Nidhi Chaphekar and Amit Motwanai -- were injured in the explosions at Zaventem airport and Swaraj said they are recovering well. Both Nidhi and Amit are from Mumbai.
"I have just spoken to Manjeev Puri, our ambassador in Brussels. He has informed me that Nidhi and Amit are both recovering well," she has said.
Swaraj had on Wednesday also said government was coordinating with Jet Airways to evacuate Indian citizens.
Brussels airport serves as the European hub for the Mumbai-based airline's international operations, which is now being relocated to Dutch capital Amsterdam from coming Sunday.
Indian Embassy in Brussels is making efforts to locate Raghavendran Ganesh since the terror attacks at the Brussels airport and the metro which left 31 dead and 300 injured.
"Raghavendran Ganesh -- We have tracked his last call in Brussels. He was travelling in the metro rail," Swaraj tweeted on Thursday.
"We are doing our best to locate Raghavendran Ganesh," Swaraj had said on Wednesday.
Two Jet Airways crew members -- Nidhi Chaphekar and Amit Motwanai -- were injured in the explosions at Zaventem airport and Swaraj said they are recovering well. Both Nidhi and Amit are from Mumbai.
"I have just spoken to Manjeev Puri, our ambassador in Brussels. He has informed me that Nidhi and Amit are both recovering well," she has said.
Swaraj had on Wednesday also said government was coordinating with Jet Airways to evacuate Indian citizens.
Brussels airport serves as the European hub for the Mumbai-based airline's international operations, which is now being relocated to Dutch capital Amsterdam from coming Sunday.
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