Belgian police were zeroing in on the shadowy bomb maker for the Brussels terror cell believed to be behind Tuesday morning’s attacks and the deadly Paris attacks last November, discovering stashes of explosives and rounding up at least one suspect.
Police raided multiple locations in Brussels Tuesday and Wednesday and continued their dragnet for bomb maker Najim Laachraoui, who may be the mystery man who appeared with two suicide bombers in a surveillance photo taken moments before explosions ripped through Zaventem Airport Tuesday, killing at least 11 in the first of twin attacks that shook the Belgian capital.
Terrorist bomb maker Najim Laachraoui, shown on left and center, may be the mystery man captured in the airport surveillance photo at right. (Belgian police)
Police also made an arrest in connection with the terror attacks, which killed at least 31 and injured as many as 270, but later dismissed reports that it was the man seen in the photo with the two bombers. That unidentified man appeared in the photo wearing a possible disguise and walking abreast of two men pushing carts suspected to be loaded with suitcase bombs.
Authorities would not confirm that the man in the photo is the Morrocan-born Laachraoui, who is suspected of equipping the terrorists who struck in Paris in November and is suspected of playing a key role in Tuesday’s bombings.
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Laachraoui, 24, is believed to have built the nail-packed suitcase bombs used in Tuesday’s attack at the airport and explosives used in a blast 79 minutes later at a Brussels Metro station.
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Brothers Khalid El Bakraoui, (l.), and Brahim El Bakraoui, (r.) (Belgian police)
Raids on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning turned up bomb-making materials in a Schaerbeek apartment, including detonators, nails and 15 kilos of acetone peroxide, a highly unstable chemical which is favored by Islamists because it’s easy to make. The chemical also was found in the explosives used in the Paris attack.
The hunt for Laachraoui and the third suspect in the surveillance photo – who could be one and the same – intensified Wednesday as the European capital was once again under lockdown and gripped by fear. Prosecutors said Wednesday that the missing man from the photo is believed to have survived the attack.
“[He] left a bag and his bag contained the most important explosive charge,” Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said at a Wednesday news conference. “His bag exploded right after the arrival of federal police. Fortunately no one was hurt.
“This third unidentified person has been on the run for awhile now,” Van Leeuw said.
The unnamed suspect arrested in raids was nabbed in Brussels’ Anderlecht district, adjacent to the Molenbeek district that has become synonymous with homegrown jihadism in Belgium. Raids were expected to continue throughout Belgium Wednesday, as Laachraoui apparently remained on the loose.
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