‘The bomb was ready’

Published on 22 September 2014 at 09:37

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The European Commission headquarters in Brussels was going to be the target of an alleged terrorist plot, reports Het Laatste Nieuws. Quoting Dutch broadcaster NOS, the Flemish daily adds that Brussels’ police found weapons and explosives ready for use in an apartment rented by a couple of Dutch nationals of Turkish origin, said to have links to Shariah4Belgium, a Belgian radical Salafist organisation. The couple, adds the daily, were arrested early August at Brussels’ airport on their way back from Syria, via Turkey. A third suspect, said to be the brother of the arrested man, is still on the run, and police believe he might have fled for Syria.
According to French-speaking daily L’Echo,

around 400 Belgian nationals have gone to Syria to fight and around 90 came back. […] Several people have been arrested, but Belgian authorities don’t want to reveal potential targets to avoid creating panic among the public.

Update on 22 September at 2PM: The Belgian Federal prosecutor said on Monday that "there was no question of a concrete plan for an attack on the premises of the European Commission", and that "the news that explosives were found during a search in Brussels is incorrect", reports Het Laatste Nieuws, although "security measures on the EC premises have been enhanced".

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