BRUSSELS
— Four times this month, proclaimed followers of the Islamic State have
sowed fear in major European cities — in London; twice in Paris; and,
on Tuesday night, in Brussels.
The
extremist group has taken responsibility for only one of the attacks — a
murderous rampage in London on June 3 — but Belgian officials on
Wednesday said that a failed bombing at Central Station on Tuesday night
underscored the continuing security threat in Europe, as the Islamic
State is under siege in Iraq and Syria.
The
36-year-old suspect — identified only as Oussama Z. — entered the
station at 8:39 p.m. on Tuesday, went downstairs from the main ticket
hall and began shouting near a group of passengers, according to Eric
Van der Sijpt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office.
The
suspect was carrying a suitcase bomb that contained nails and gas
bottles, Mr. Van der Sijpt said, and set off a partial and relatively
harmless explosion.
He
then left the bag behind while he went in pursuit of a train official,
Mr. Van der Sijpt said, and it “exploded a second time, more violently.”
After
the second explosion, the man went back upstairs, approached a soldier
and shouted “God is great” in Arabic. The soldier opened fire, killing
him. Initial reports that the man might have been wearing an explosive
belt proved to be unfounded. No injuries were reported.
The
authorities said that the suspect, a Moroccan citizen, had assembled
the bomb at his home in the working-class Molenbeek section of Brussels.
While
a more serious attack was averted — the authorities praised the soldier
for his quick response — it once again shined a spotlight on Belgium,
a country that has been used as a base by many jihadists. Some
developed extremist views in Belgium and then went to Syria and Iraq
before returning.
Militants based in Brussels have been linked to the deadly attacks in and around Paris in November 2015, and the bombings at Brussels Airport and a subway station in March 2016. More than 160 people died in those attacks, for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility.
A number of militants involved in those earlier attacks had roots in Morocco, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a ringleader of the Paris attacks; the brothers Salah and Ibrahim Abdeslam, who were among the Paris attackers; Mohamed Abrini, who accompanied two suicide bombers in the airport attack; Najim Laachraoui, a bomb maker who blew himself up at the airport; and the brothers Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui, who died in the Brussels bombings. Salah Abdeslam and Mr. Abrini are being held while awaiting trial.
In addition, two of the three men who carried out the attack on and around London Bridge in June were Moroccan.
About
100,000 people with Moroccan citizenship live in Belgium, which has a
population of 11 million. Moroccan-Belgians are the country’s largest
minority group with roots outside the European Union.
Many
Moroccan men were recruited in the 1960s to work in Belgium’s mines and
factories on temporary contracts but stayed on, eventually joined by
their families. Many then became Belgian citizens, and it is their
children or grandchildren — albeit only a tiny fraction of the
population — who have sometimes been drawn to jihadist ideology.
Often,
according to experts who have studied the phenomenon, future militants
start with petty crime and then search for an identity as a way to frame
their illicit activity, or to atone for past misdeeds.
Islamic State supporters come from many backgrounds: The man who attacked police officers outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on June 6 was an Algerian, and the man who rammed into a police convoy on the Champs-Élysées on Monday was a French citizen.
Oussama
Z., born in 1981, had lived for several years in Molenbeek, which was
also the home of some of those connected to other attacks in the city
and in Paris.
“He
probably made the bomb there,” the prosecutor’s office said after
Oussama Z.’s home was raided, giving no specific information about the
explosive used, other than saying that “chemical substances and
materials” were found that could have been used in bomb making.
The authorities said the man was known to police for sexual misconduct but not for terrorism.
The
failed attack on Tuesday occurred on the eve of a summit meeting in
Brussels at which European leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel
of Germany and President Emmanuel Macron of France, were to discuss
military and security issues, among other topics.
Jan
Jambon, the Belgian interior minister, said in an interview with VRT
News on Wednesday that several homes had been raided overnight.
“The
modus operandi of I.S. keeps changing,” he said of the Islamic State.
“It’s a game of the poacher and the forest ranger — whenever the forest
ranger approaches, the poacher goes elsewhere and finds new ways.”
While
he added that it was essential to be vigilant in the face of security
threats, he warned against an overreaction. “If you protect yourself
everywhere against anything, in the end we will end up in a police
state,” he said.
After
a national security council meeting, the Belgian prime minister,
Charles Michel, said that although there was no indication that another
attack was imminent, security would nonetheless be intensified.
Central
Station was temporarily closed, but it reopened Wednesday morning, as
did the nearby Grand Place, an imposing square and tourist destination
that had been partly evacuated after the attack
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