Paris suspects remain at large, football friendly cancelled
Belgium’s terror threat has been raised from 2 to 3 as two of the main suspects in the Friday night attacks on Paris, both from Molenbeek, remain at large
Terror threat 3
Monday saw the terrorist threat level in Belgium raised from 2 to 3, on a scale of 4. The level was increased at the weekend specifically for major events, but has now been raised in general. Yesterday was marked by two bomb threats and a major police operation in the commune of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek.
One bomb alert was signalled in Jozef II-straat, close to Belgian government offices and to the US Embassy. The alarm was raised by passers-by concerned by a badly parked VW Golf with French number plates. The car was searched by the army’s bomb disposal squad Dovo but turned up nothing suspicious.
In Antwerp, a suspect package in the underground car park of an Ikea store was also brought to a controlled explosion by Dovo. Shoppers were detained inside the store and not allowed to leave while the operation proceeded.
Suspects at large
Two of the main suspects in the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Abdeslam Salah – both of Molenbeek – remain at large. Salah, 26, was last seen after the attacks in the vicinity of the stadium. Originally the government had intended to detail 20 soldiers to patrol the stadium, but in the end it was decided to cancel the match. Ticket-holders will be informed this week about a replacement match.
We are more than ever prepared to resist hatred and violence
Police carried out a search in Delaunoystraat in Molenbeek, where the family resides who are suspected of having harboured Salah following the attacks. The house was besieged by heavily armed police on neighbouring roofs, and police sent video cameras on long poles to look inside the upper floors. Salah, however, was not present. His brother Brahim, 31, was killed in a suicide bombing in Paris. A third brother, Mohamed, was arrested and questioned in Brussels before being released.
Abaaoud, meanwhile, is currently considered by police in Belgium and France to be the leader of the group responsible for the attacks in Paris on Friday night that killed 129 and critically injured nearly 100. The 29-year-old was thought to have been killed in Iraq in 2014, but was interviewed in terrorist group IS’s English-language magazine early this year under another name.
Abaaoud is thought to have been involved in organising the foiled terrorist activity in Verviers and the shooting at a Jewish supermarket in Paris, both early this year. He is also wanted for questioning for involvement in the attempted Thalys train shooting between Brussels and Paris in August.
In related news, the Flemish Interfaith Dialogue (Vild) group, which leads discussions among religious and humanist organisations, met with the Platform of Flemish Imams yesterday to issue a “resolute and powerful condemnation of barbaric terrorism and every form of hatred and violence that seeks to destroy human dignity and the fundamental values of Western society”.
Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois, who founded Vild last year, attended the meeting in Ghent. “We are more than ever prepared to resist hatred and violence carried out in the name of any religious or ideological conviction,” he said.
Vild includes representatives of the Anglican, Jewish, Islamic, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant-Evangelist churches, as well as the Flemish Islamic Education Centre and the organisation of free-thinking humanists.
Photo: Police carry out house searchers in Molenbeek on Monday
©Ye Pingfan/Xinhua Press/Corbis
About the author
