Brussels suicide bombers identified as police hunt suspect caught on CCTV

Two of the suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the twin Brussels attacks that killed at least 31 people on Tuesday have been formally named by prosecutors, as police searched for a suspect captured on CCTV at Zaventem airport. The Belgian federal prosecutor, Frédéric van Leeuw, confirmed media reports that Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29, detonated one of two devices that exploded at Zaventem airport, killing himself and 11 others and injuring more than 90. His younger brother Khalid, 27, was responsible for a third explosion, just over an hour later in a metro carriage at Maelbeek station on the rue de la Loi, near offices of the European commission, van Leeuw told a news conference. At least 14 people died in that attack, with more than 130 wounded. Van Leeuw said the two airport bombs exploded within seconds of each other at 7.58am, near the check-in desks of rows 11 and two in the main departure hall. Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was identified by his fingerprints. But two others from a group of three men caught on a CCTV camera wheeling loaded baggage trolleys across the hall have not been identified. One of these men was the second airport suicide bomber, the other a suspect who survived after leaving behind a suitcase containing a “very large explosive charge” and who is being actively sought. Belgian media have suggested the surviving attacker was Najim Laachraoui, but reports that he had been arrested were later retracted. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which plunged the Belgian capital into a day-long lockdown, led to heightened security at airports across Europe, and drew swift and strong condemnation from other European capitals, the US and Russia. Shortly after Brussels residents, EU staff including the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and members of the Belgian royal family observed a minute’s silence in memory of the dead, van Leeuw confirmed the death toll from the attacks stood at 31 but was likely to rise further, with 270 injured. A taxi driver had come forward after recognising CCTV images of the three airport suspects as men he picked up from an apartment block and dropped off at the airport, van Leeuw said, adding that police had subsequently raided the building in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek and discovered 15kg of explosives, detonators and a suitcase filled with nails and screws. A series of other raids in the same street had led to one arrest, the prosecutor added, and the discovery in a rubbish bin of a computer containing a statement from Ibrahim el-Bakraoui in which he wrote of feeling “in a rush, not knowing what to do, being hunted everywhere, not being safe, and if this goes on, ending up in a cell”. Van Leeuw said the two el-Bakraoui brothers, both Belgian nationals, had long criminal records but had not so far been associated with terrorism. It has emerged since the bloody attacks in Paris last November that killed 130 people, however, that they were part of that terror cell. One el-Bakraoui brother is known to have rented a flat in the Forest area of south-west Brussels that was raided by police last Tuesday, leading three days later to the capture of Salah Abdeslam, the only known survivor among the 10 Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers who attacked the Bataclan concert hall, Stade de France and a string of cafes and restaurants in Paris. One of the brothers is also known to have rented a hideout in Charleroi in Belgium where two more of the Paris attackers, ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Bilal Hadfi, who blew himself up at the Stade de France, met before heading to the French capital. One of the el-Bakraoui brothers is also believed to have provided ammunition and weapons for the Paris attacks, RTBF reported. Laachraoui, 24, is also suspected of involvement in the Paris attacks. He reportedly travelled to Syria in 2013 and was previously identified by his alias, Soufiane Kayal. He was travelling with Abdeslam in September 2015 when their car was stopped at the Hungarian border with Austria. Also in the car was Mohammed Belkaid, who was shot dead by a police sniper in a Forest raid. Laachraoui’s DNA was also found at another apartment used by the Paris attackers in Auvelais. near the central Belgian city of Namur, and at another suspected hideout in Schaerbeek. RTBF said he could have been one of the bombmakers involved in the Paris attacks. Belgium raised its terror alert to its highest level in the aftermath of the attacks. The airport will remain closed on Wednesday and Thursday and the metro will be running a reduced service, but schools were opening as normal. The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, who was travelling to Brussels on Wednesday, urged the EU parliament to authorise a full Europe-wide passenger name record. “It has waited too long to adopt this text,” he said. “It must examine and adopt it in April. It’s time.” The suspects Ibrahim el-Bakraoui El-Bakraoui blew himself up at Brussels’ main airport. He and his brother, Khalid, were well known to Belgian police because of their long history of involvement in organised crime. They had clear links to the Paris attacks and were among the suspects on the run. The second bomber at the airport. Khalid el-Bakraoui Khalid el-Bakroui was responsible for the explosion in the metro carriage at Maelbeek station on the rue de la Loi, which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 130. Like his brother Ibrahim, the airport bomber, he had a criminal history and links to the Paris attacks. He had rented the flat in Forest, south-west Brussels, that was raided by police last Tuesday and where DNA traces of Salah Abdeslam, the surviving Paris attacker, had been found. Najim Laachraoui Laachraoui was identified as a key suspect in the Paris attacks the day before the Brussels bombings. His DNA was found in two hideouts used by Paris attackers and also on explosive material, prosecutors have said. Laachraoui was travelling under an alias with Salah Abdeslam in September last year when their Mercedes was stopped at the Hungarian border with Austria. RTBF reported that he could have been one of the bombmakers in the Paris attacks. Thanks for reading.

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