terrorism
Attack in Brussels: attacker dead, many questions unanswered
Police close a street while a police officer stands guard behind police tape. photo
© Lou Lampaert/Belga/dpa
Brussels held its breath for more than twelve hours: an armed assassin was at large and shot two people in the city. The authorities now have to prepare for uncomfortable questions.
They searched for him all night long. In the morning he was cornered by the police in a café and shot. The person suspected of being responsible for the fatal shooting of two Swedish football fans in Brussels is now dead itself. It is a 45-year-old rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia, said Justice Minister Vincent van Quickenborne early in the morning before the arrest. Hours full of fear and uncertainty are coming to an end for the Belgian capital.
On Monday evening, according to the Belgian news agency Belga, the armed man got off a scooter in the north of the city center and fired shots on the street. When several people fled into a house entrance, he is said to have chased them and shot them. The police did not initially confirm this information. According to the public prosecutor’s office, a third victim is now out of danger. The entire city was on alert and people were asked to get to safety immediately.
European Championship qualification canceled – people were stuck in the stadium
The two Swedes died from bullets around five kilometers away from the Brussels football stadium, where the national teams of Belgium and Sweden were playing against each other in a European Championship qualifier. The news of the deaths of the two football fans spread during half-time. According to the Swedish TV channel SVT, the players of both teams did not want to continue the match. For safety reasons, several thousand people initially had to stay in the Brussels football stadium until they could be evacuated. A Swedish football fan reported on X that the police had advised people not to show themselves as such.
The question of why
The exact motives for the crime are still unclear, even if the government and public prosecutors speak very clearly about terror. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, a post by a person who posed as the attacker and claimed to be inspired by the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) was shared on social networks. There was also a video circulating on the Internet that was supposed to show the crime.
A connection with the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas was ruled out the day before; on Tuesday, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office told broadcaster VRT: “But we have now discovered that he has made a number of statements of support for the Palestinian people on his social media shared.” So that could have played a role after all.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Swedish nationality of the victims could also have been a motivation for the crime. This year, people in Sweden and later also in Denmark burned copies of the Koran several times, triggering angry reactions among Muslims. All this caused diplomatic trouble for the Scandinavian countries. The day after the attack, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called for better border controls in the EU. The alleged perpetrator was temporarily in Sweden before the attack.
What happens next?
The day after the attack, Brussels was still at the highest level of terrorism. Schools and authorities remained partially closed and the police presence was significantly increased. The threat level for the rest of the country was also raised – to the second highest. In the next few days, the process of coming to terms with the situation in the deeply politically divided country will begin. The focus should be on the question: could the attack have been prevented? The possible connection with radical Islamism in particular awakens dark memories for many Brussels residents.
The trial of the 2016 Brussels terrorist attacks only ended around four weeks ago. Three IS suicide bombers detonated bombs at Brussels’ Zaventem airport and in a subway station in the heart of the Belgian capital. They killed over 30 people and injured 340. The bereaved were also stunned by media reports at the time that several of the defendants had been monitored by the Belgian security authorities before the attacks – and were still able to commit their murders later.
The perpetrator of the current bloody act was also known to the police – for example in connection with human trafficking, illegal residence and endangering state security. In July 2016, unconfirmed information was transmitted by a foreign police authority that the man had an Islamist profile and wanted to go to a conflict zone to wage jihad, the justice minister said. However, there is plenty of such information. They were checked without results. “Moreover, as far as our services know, there were no concrete indications of radicalization,” it said.