NATION/WORLD
Thursday, March 24, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Clear link between bombings in Paris, Brussels
Associated Press
BRUSSELS — As police hunted
for the surviving Brussels bomber,
evidence mounted Wednesday that
the same Islamic State cell carried
out the attacks in both Paris and
Brussels, and that the militants may
have launched this week’s slaughter
in haste because they feared authori-
ties were closing in on them.
On a day of mourning across
Belgium following Tuesday’s
bombings of the Brussels airport
and subway that killed 31 people
and wounded more than 270, new
information emerged about the four
attackers:
— European security of¿cials
said one of the suicide bombers
was Najim Laachraoui, a Moroc-
can-born Belgian whom police have
hunted as the suspected bombmaker
in the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris by the
Islamic State that killed 130 people.
— The other two suicide bombers
were Belgian-born brothers, Ibrahim
El Bakraoui and his younger brother,
Khalid, both known to the police as
common criminals, not anti-Western
radicals.
— Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said Ibrahim El
Bakraoui was caught in June 2015
near Turkey’s border with Syria and
deported, at his own request, to the
Netherlands, with Ankara warning
'utch and Belgian of¿cials that he
was a ³foreign terrorist ¿ghter.´ But
other Turkish of¿cials said he was
released from Dutch custody due to
lack of evidence of involvement in
extremism.
Details of the investigation
from chief prosecutor Frederic Van
Leeuw pointed to a rising sense of
panic among the three bombers who
blew themselves up. An unidenti¿ed
fourth man who was shown in
airport video surveillance footage
remains at large after Van Leeuw
said his suitcase bomb failed to
detonate properly. Authorities say he
was the man in a light jacket and hat
on the far right of the video footage.
Van Leeuw said the bomb did
partially explode after police had
already evacuated the terminal,
injuring nobody.
The prosecutor said a laptop
seized from a garbage can on
a street outside the brothers’
last known address contained a
message purportedly from Ibrahim
El Bakraoui that indicated he was
expecting to be arrested imminently
following Friday’s capture in Brus-
sels of the suspected ringleader of
the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam.
“I don’t know what to do, I’m in
a hurry, people are looking for me
everywhere,´ Van Leeuw quoted
the message as saying. “If I give
myself up I’ll end up in a cell next
to him,´ — an apparent reference to
the just-arrested Abdeslam.
Police were drawn to the brothers’
apartment Tuesday night thanks
to a tip from a taxi driver who had
unwittingly delivered them to the
airport, Van Leeuw said. Inside the
northeast Brussels residence they
found an apparent bomb-making
factory, including 33 pounds of
homemade explosives and nails for
use as shrapnel.
Neighbors told The Associated
Press they had no idea of the
brothers’ activities and barely saw
them until the taxi collected them
and their visibly heavy bags Tuesday
Attackers believed to be connected
The suspects in Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels and the Nov.
13, 2015 attacks in Paris are believed to have been part of a
cell linked to the Islamic State group, which claims
responsibility for the attacks.
Brussels attacks March 23, 2016
KILLED
KILLED
KILLED
AT LARGE
Ibrahim
El Bakraoui
Khalid
El Bakraoui
Najim
Laachraoui
Identity
not given
Airport
bomber
Subway
bomber
Airport
bomber
Rented an
apartment linked to
Salah Abdeslam.
Believed to have made the
suicide vests used in the
Paris attacks.
Paris attacks Nov. 13, 2015
CAUGHT
Suspected of
being the
logistics man
for the Paris
attacks.
Salah
Abdeslam
KILLED
Nov. 13 attack
ringleader.
Died in a
police raid
Abdelhamid Nov. 18.
Abaaoud
SOURCE: AP reporting
morning.
One neighbor, who was willing
to give only his ¿rst name of Erdine,
said he was about to drive his son
to school when he saw the two
men carrying their bags out of the
building.
“The taxi driver tried to get the
luggage. And the other guy reached
for it like he was saying: No, I’ll
take it,´ the neighbor said.
At the core of the Belgian
investigation is a photo taken from
the airport’s surveillance cameras
showing three attackers walking
side by side as they push luggage
carts. Van Leeuw said the middle
¿gure has been identi¿ed as Ibrahim
El Bakraoui, while the two men
Àanking him remained unidenti¿ed.
But two security of¿cials told
the AP that Laachraoui’s DNA was
veri¿ed as that of one of Tuesday’s
suicide bombers after samples were
taken from remains found at the
airport. One European of¿cial and
one French police of¿cial spoke
on condition of anonymity because
they weren’t authorized to divulge
details of the Belgian investigation.
Both of¿cials were briefed on the
investigation.
Belgian of¿cials have not
publicly linked any of the remains
to Laachraoui; nor have they said he
was involved in the Brussels attack.
Since prosecutors said Khalid
El Bakraoui was killed in the
subway bombing, that would make
Laachraoui the remaining uniden-
ti¿ed ¿gure on the far left of the
airport video footage.
Belgian authorities have been
looking for Laachraoui since last
week, suspecting him of being
an accomplice to Abdeslam, who
was arrested Friday in the Brussels
neighborhood where he grew up.
AP
Laachraoui is believed to have
made the suicide vests used in Paris,
a French police of¿cial told the AP,
adding that Laachraoui’s DNA was
found on all of the vests as well as
in a Brussels apartment where they
were made.
The of¿cial spoke on condition
of anonymity because he wasn’t
authorized to discuss an ongoing
investigation. Seven of the Paris
attackers blew themselves up or
were slain by police.
French and Belgian authorities
have said the network behind the
Paris attacks was much larger than
initially thought — and devel-
opments this week suggest the
same group could have staged the
violence both in Paris and Brussels.
“It’s the same team,´ said a
French senator, Nathalie Goulet,
who is co-leader of a parliamentary
commission on studying jihadi
networks.
She said Abdeslam should have
had little dif¿culty organizing more
recruits following his November
escape from France.
“He probably had 10 more at
hand who would be ready to do the
same thing tomorrow morning,´
she said, describing his Brussels
acolytes as “like a scout troop ... a
troop of death.´
A Belgian of¿cial working on
the investigation told AP it is a
“plausible hypothesis´ that Abde-
slam was helping to organize the
Brussels attack. The of¿cial spoke
on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to discuss the
investigation.
The comments by the Turkish
president that Ibrahim El Bakraoui
was determined by his country to be
a militant ¿ghter and then deported
to Europe could raise embarrassing
Islamic State trains 400
¿ghters to attack Europe
PARIS (AP) — The Islamic
State group has trained at least 400
¿ghters to target Europe in deadly
waves of attacks, deploying
interlocking terror cells like the
ones that struck Brussels and Paris
with orders to choose the time,
place and method for maximum
carnage, of¿cials have told The
Associated Press.
The network of agile and
semiautonomous cells shows the
reach of the extremist group in
Europe even as it loses ground in
Syria and Iraq.
The of¿cials, including
European and Iraqi intelligence
of¿cials and a French lawmaker
who follows the jihadi networks,
described camps in Syria, Iraq
and possibly the former Soviet
bloc where attackers are trained to
target the West.
Before being killed in a police
raid, the ringleader of the Nov.
13 Paris attacks claimed he had
entered Europe in a multinational
group of 90 ¿ghters, who scattered
“more or less everywhere.´
But the biggest break yet in the
Paris attacks investigation — the
arrest on Friday of fugitive Salah
Abdeslam— did not thwart the
multipronged attack just four
days later on the Belgian capital’s
airport and subway system
that left 31 people dead and an
estimated 270 wounded. Three
suicide bombers also died.
Just as in Paris, Belgian
authorities were searching for at
least one fugitive in Tuesday’s
attacks — this time for a man
wearing a white jacket who was
seen on airport security footage
with the two suicide attackers.
questions for Western security
of¿cials.
But a Turkish of¿cial who
spoke on condition of anonymity
because he wasn’t authorized to
speak publicly said the bomber was
allowed to go free because Belgian
authorities could not establish any
ties to extremism.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen
Geens said authorities would have
no reason to have detained Ibrahim
El Bakraoui last year as an Islamic
State suspect because he was “not
known for terrorist acts but as a
common law criminal who was on
conditional release.´
Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29,
received a nine-year prison sentence
in 2010 for shooting at police
following an attempted robbery of a
currency exchange, while Khalid El
Bakraoui, 27, served a brief sentence
for attempted carjacking.
Belgian state broadcaster RTBF,
citing sources it did not identify,
said Khalid El Bakraoui had rented
an apartment that police raided last
week in an operation that directly
led to Abdeslam’s arrest at another
apartment just a few streets away
from his parents’ home.
Wednesday was the ¿rst of three
of¿cial days of mourning, and thou-
sands gathered at the Place de la
Bourse, a central square in Brussels,
The fear is that the man, whose
identity Belgian of¿cials say is not
known, will follow Abdeslam’s
path.
After Àeeing Paris immediately
after the November attacks,
Abdeslam forged a new
network back in his childhood
neighborhood of Molenbeek, long
known as a haven for jihadis, and
renewed plotting, according to
Belgian of¿cials.
“Not only did he drop out of
sight, but he did so to organize
another attack, with accomplices
everywhere. With suicide belts.
Two attacks organized just like in
Paris. And his arrest, since they
knew he was going to talk, it was
a response: ‘So what if he was
arrested? We’ll show you that
it doesn’t change a thing,’´ said
French Senator Nathalie Goulet,
co-head of a commission tracking
jihadi networks.
Estimates range from 400
to 600 Islamic State ¿ghters
trained speci¿cally for external
attacks, according to the of¿cials,
including Goulet. Some 5,000
Europeans have gone to Syria.
“The reality is that if we knew
exactly how many there were, it
wouldn’t be happening,´ she said.
In claiming responsibility for
Tuesday’s attack, the Islamic State
group described a “secret cell of
soldiers´ dispatched to Brussels
for the purpose. The shadowy
cells were con¿rmed by the EU
police agency, Europol, which
said in a late January report that
intelligence of¿cials believed the
group had “developed an external
action command trained for
special forces-style attacks.´
to remember the victims.
“Long live Belgium´ some
declared.
The attacks badly rattled Brus-
sels’ transportation links. Several
subway stations in the city center
and at the airport remained closed.
Of¿cials at the airport, which typi-
cally handles 00 Àights daily, said
it would remain shut down until at
least Saturday.
Many of the dead remained
unidenti¿ed, partly because of the
severity of devastation caused by
the nail-packed bombs detonated in
crowds.
Eleven people were con¿rmed
dead at the airport, 20 inside the
Maelbeek subway station.
In a second claim of responsi-
bility Wednesday, the Islamic State
group warned of further attacks
and what it called “dark days´ for
countries involved in attacking IS
positions in Syria and Iraq.
French Prime Minister Manuel
Valls said major cultural and sports
events should not be postponed for
fear of attack. He said that includes
the monthlong European soccer
tournament being staged throughout
France in June.
A planned soccer match between
Belgium and Portugal, originally
scheduled for March 29 in Brussels,
was moved to Portugal.
Hillary Clinton says she, not Trump,
is the one to defeat Islamic State group
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Hillary
Clinton is doing what Republican rivals
now say they took far too long to do: Taking
Donald Trump seriously.
In interviews and foreign policy addresses
this week, the Democratic front-runner has
worked to undercut Trump’s credentials in
the wake of deadly bombings in Brussels.
Her goal is to transform the voters’ vision of
the bombastic reality TV star into a potential
commander in chief with his ¿nger on a
nuclear trigger — an image her team believes
will repel voters in November.
Clinton is casting herself as a calm harbor
in a stormy world, frequently mentioning the
need for “steady hands.´ The comment is a
clear reference to Trump with the implication
he’d never ¿ll that need.
In a speech Wednesday Stanford Univer-
sity, Clinton called for “strong, smart, steady
leadership,´ arguing that recent comments
from Republicans Trump and Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz show they are not up to the task of
combatting Islamic militants.
“Turning our back on our alliances, or
turning our alliance into a protection racket
would reverse decades of bipartisan Amer-
ican leadership and send a dangerous signal
to friend and foe alike,´ she said, referencing
a call by Trump to lessen U.S. involvement
in NATO. “Putin already hopes to divide
Europe. If Mr. Trump gets his way, it will be
like Christmas in the Kremlin.´
Clinton also assailed Cruz’s call for
patrolling Muslim neighborhoods.
“When Republican candidates like Ted
Cruz call for treating American Muslims like
criminals and for racially pro¿ling predomi-
nantly Muslim neighborhoods, it’s wrong, it’s
counterproductive, it’s dangerous,´ Clinton
said.
Trump quickly dismissed her speech on
Twitter and insisted he’s better prepared to
take over the country’s ¿ght against Islamic
State militants.
“Just watched Hillary deliver a prepack-
aged speech on terror. She’s been in of¿ce
¿ghting terror for 20 years — and look where
we are´ he wrote, adding: “I will be the best
by far in ¿ghting terror. I’m the only one that
was right from the beginning, & now Lyin’
Ted & others are copying me.´ That last was
a reference to a Republican rival, Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz.
Political strategists in both parties admit to
being slightly bafÀed by the coming general
election, acknowledging they have few clear
expectations for a match-up between candi-
dates with such high negative ratings and
vastly different personal styles.
But there is one prediction they all agree
on: It will get ugly.
Though there are still months of primary
contests to come, the two front-runners have
already begun trading heated attacks.
Trump has accused Clinton of being
responsible for the deaths of hundreds of
thousands across the globe. Clinton, in turn,
has accused him of inciting violence and
likened his rise in the polls to “dark chapters´
of history like the Holocaust.
Her aides see foreign policy as an area
that allows Clinton to highlight both Trump’s
unpredictable temperament and lack of inter-
national experience.
Democrats say those points, coupled with
his controversial statements about women,
Latinos and Muslims, will help their party
woo moderate independents and even Repub-
lican voters — and offset potential losses
among the white, working class men attracted
to Trump’s candidacy.
Jacob Tyler Jones
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