Belgian police reportedly arrest man after searches linked to Paris attacks

He is believed to have traveled to Syria in the winter of 2013.

It was previously announced that police made several arrests when they carried out raids Saturday in the poor immigrant Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek, which has been linked to past terror plots.

“Europe no longer has borders and it is therefore logical that (militants) benefit too”, Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said today.

At least two people involved in the attacks in Paris were brothers, identified as Ibrahim and Salah Abdeslam, according to a senior European intelligence official familiar with the case, writes The Washington Post.

The reports suggest that the Stade de France attack could have been far more deadly, if the attacker had not been discovered.

Interior Minister Jan Jambon pledged to “personally take care” of Molenbeek.

The Blic newspaper in Belgrade on Sunday reported that Serbian authorities had records of the man named in the passport, identified as Ahmad Almohammad, 25, as passing from Greece into Serbia.

Jihadi sources told Reuters in September they were using the migrant crisis to send a few of their fighter to Europe, although Western officials played down that prospect. “It can be that this trail was laid on goal by the IS to influence the refugee debate”, German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere told German television.

“Such fake Syrian passports are widely available in Turkey, and are often bought by non-Syrians trying to get to European Union because Syrians get preferential treatment on the journey”, Human Rights Watch’s Peter Bouckaert, a close Syria-watcher, wrote on his Facebook page.

He added that the attackers used “war-type weapons” including Kalashnikov rifles and identical explosive devices that used “TATP”, a type of volatile explosive. Asked about his destination, the man said he wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, police said.

After US President Barack Obama consulted with security advisers Saturday, the White House said it “had no information to contradict the initial French assessment of (Islamic State’s) responsibility”. Specifically, the ticket was from a Brussels neighborhood called Molenbeek, known as being a hotspot of terrorist activity, according to Bloomberg News.