The third bomb suspect, 25-year-old Nahim Laachraoui, has been captured, Sky News reports. More details regarding the circumstances surrounding his arrest were not immediately available, although a press conference will be held by a federal prosecutor later this morning.The two suicide bombers were named as brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El-Bakraoui, both of whom were reportedly known to police as being involved in organized crime. They also had ties to the ISIS cell that was responsible for the November terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.
The third attacker, known as the ‘Man in White,’ was identified as Nahim Laachraoui, 25. He too was linked to the Paris attacks and is believed to have been responsible for building the suicide vests used in those massacres.
RTBF reported that Khalid El-Bakraoui, 27, rented an apartment in the Forest section of the city that was raided by authorities March 15. In that raid, a police sniper killed a man identified as Mohamed Belkaid, 35, an Algerian with links to ISIS. Authorities also reportedly found an ISIS flag and a Kalashnikov rifle and ammunition, as well as several detonators that may have been meant to be used in Tuesday’s attacks. […]
The March 15 raid led to Friday’s arrest of Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam after one of his fingerprints was discovered in the raided apartment. Politico Europe, citing a senior Belgian official, reported that Abdeslam was supposed to take part in Tuesday’s attacks. The report did not specify what role Abdeslam would have played.
Over the weekend, Belgium’s Foreign Minister disclosed that Abdeslam had been preparing further attaccks, saying the suspect was “ready to restart something from Brussels.”
The Guardian also reported that one of the El-Bakraoui brothers had rented a safe house in Charleroi, Belgium, that was used by Paris attackers Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Bilal Hadfi as a rendezvous point prior to the attacks that killed 130 people in the French capital. The paper also reported that one of the brothers had provided weapons and ammunition to the terrorists who attacked the Bataclan concert hall on that deadly night.
Laachraoui is thought to have built the suicide vests used by the Paris attackers, according to a police official who told the Associated Press that Laachraoui’s DNA was found on all of them and in a Brussels apartment where they were made.
DH reported that in October 2010, Ibrahim El-Bakraoui, 30, was convicted of shooting at police with a Kalashnikov during an attempted robbery. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. In February 2011, the paper reported, Khalid El-Bakraoui was sentenced to five years’ probation in connection with a string of carjackings.
Laachraoui escaped the terminal shortly before the 8am attack after leaving a suitcase full of explosives. It is not yet known whether he is responsible for the attack on the Brussels Metro train a little over an hour later, which killed 20 people.
Source: Townhall
