Belgium: 2 suspected of plotting attacks arrested

After the arrest of two terrorist suspects in Belgium, new details about the alleged attack plans are known.

Among the intended targets were the Grand Place, the Belgian capital’s central square and site of its largest Christmas market, and a nearby police station, according to a person briefed on the investigations.

The Belga news agency, citing an internal police memo, said there “exists a possible and credible threat of Paris-style attacks” against the high-profile Grand Place, the neighbouring central police station as well as soldiers and police in uniform.

In January, Belgian anti-terrorism units foiled an attack plot targeting police by raiding a house in the eastern city of Verviers, killing two suspected militants and arresting a third.

Police found military clothing and Isil propaganda material but no weapons or explosives and the searches were not linked to the attacks in Paris in November, which killed 130 people, prosecutors said.

Another faced charges of ‘ participating in the activities of a terrorist group’, while the four others were released after questioning.

“They have barbecues, go riding”, Lahlali said.

Brahim’s brother, Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the attacks on November 13, had had fled to Belgium afterwards and remains on the run.

The warning came from a “friendly” intelligence service, which divulged the possibility of fresh terror attacks in the form of shooting or bomb attacks in capital cities across Europe, Vienna police said, according to NBC news.

Numerous suspects in the Paris attacks, including Abaaoud, were Brussels residents or had Brussels ties. He reportedly showed no signs of radical extremism, but was a childhood friend of the biker group’s founder, who has been convicted of several holdups and has been named by some Belgian media as one of the attack suspects arrested this week.

The prosecutor’s office denied any connection between the police action of the past two days and the wave of deadly attacks in Paris on November 13, which were claimed by Daesh and which France says were planned in Belgium. All the while, a new report suggests that several Belgian soldiers and police officers were getting it on while everyone else was getting inside (their homes).

“We want life to continue despite this risk”, Ramacker said.