25 March 2016

Brussels suspect's DNA in Paris

The BBC has an article about the European bombers:


Belgian officials have named the second suicide bomber in the attack at Brussels airport as Najim Laachraoui, and said that his DNA was found at sites of the recent Paris attacks. The news came as three people were arrested in Brussels in connection with the attacks. Prosecutors said the arrests were linked to the raid in Paris, where an attack was apparently foiled. Other suspects have been arrested in Belgium, Germany, and France.
Thirty-one people died in bombings at the airport in Brussels and at a Metro station.
The attacks came days after the arrest of Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam in Brussels.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said that Abdeslam, who had initially agreed to co-operate with investigators, had ceased to do so. "The federal prosecutor has just informed me that Salah Abdeslam no longer wants to talk since the attacks on Zaventem and the metro," he said in Parliament.
It also emerged that police in Mechelen, north of Brussels, had failed to pass on vital information in December of 2015 to colleagues in Brussels that could have led them to Abdeslam.
Local police chief Yves Bogaerts said the information was not deliberately withheld.
The so-called Islamic State (IS) has said it carried out both the Brussels and Paris attacks. It has released a video about the Brussels attacks, presenting them as retribution for coalition attacks against IS territory in Iraq and Syria.
As clear connections emerged between the militants involved in the two sets of attacks, French President Francois Hollande warned of a threat from other similar networks.
"We have had success in finding the terrorists both in Brussels and in Paris," he said. "While there have been some arrests, we know there are other networks because, even though the one that carried out the attacks in Paris and Brussels is in the process of being wiped out with a number of its members arrested, there's still a threat looming."
Belgian prosecutors said Laachraoui:
Had left DNA on a piece of cloth at the Bataclan and on an explosive device at the Stade de France in November of 2015
His DNA also found in a flat in Brussels and a house in Auvelais in southern Belgium, both used by the Paris bombers
Until this week, was known only as Soufiane Kayal (photo)
Brahim el-Bakraoui has already been named as one of the perpetrators of the airport attack, which left eleven people dead. A third remains unidentified. In the same statement, the prosecutor's office said three more arrests were made in the Forest, St. Gilles, and Schaerbeek districts of Brussels on Friday. In the most recent raid, a man carrying a backpack was shot in Schaerbeek after refusing to obey police, media say. Controlled explosions were carried out. An area near Meiser square was sealed off by heavily armed police and military vehicles. A witness quoted by local media said the man had taken a woman and child hostage. He released the child and was shot despite trying to use the woman as a shield. The operation has now finished and the cordon has been lifted. Schaerbeek mayor Bernard Clerfayt said a man had been arrested and shot in the leg.
Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Brussels, said IS would be destroyed. Standing alongside Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, he expressed his condolences and solidarity with Belgium, declaring Je suis Bruxellois. The Western alliance would continue its fight to destroy IS, he said. "We will not be intimidated. We will not be deterred."
Six people were detained in the Schaerbeek and Jette districts and the city center of Brussels on Thursday.
Germany: Two suspected jihadists were detained in the Dusseldorf and Giessen areas on Wednesday and Thursday, both with suspected links to one of the Brussels bombers, Der Spiegel reports, and one with suspicious text messages on his mobile phone referencing Brussels.
More details of those killed in the Brussels attacks have been released; nationals of forty countries were caught up in the attacks. Among the deaths confirmed so far:
Three Dutch citizens, including two who had dual-American nationality
One Briton, David DixonOne Chinese national
The Brussels bombings continue to have political repercussions, with questions surrounding the issue of whether more could have been done to prevent them.
Rico says more could always be done, but it usually requires unConstitutional methods...

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