Belgium arrests eight in ‘terror attack’ probe following house raids

March 28, 2023

From France 24. A hat trick of Ramadan jihad across Europe tonight; Greece, Portugal and Belgium

Police have detained eight people during investigations into an alleged plot to commit “terrorist attacks” in Belgium, the federal prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.

Raids were conducted late Monday on homes in the capital Brussels, the port city of Antwerp and the border town of Eupen, the statement said.

A judicial source told AFP those arrested “were very young radicalised people” suspected of belonging to a jihadist movement

The prosecutor’s statement cited two inquiries, one led by federal police in Brussels and the other by an investigating magistrate in Antwerp.

Both led to house raids on Monday, and the statement said: “There are links between the two files, but further research will have to show to what extent the two groups were intertwined

Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported that the Brussels and Antwerp cases initially focused on two young adults suspected of violent radicalism and that investigations revealed links between the two, with potentially dangerous individuals gravitating in their entourage.

The statement said at least five of those detained were suspected of planning to “commit a terrorist attack in Belgium“.

In both cases the suspects have been detained but not yet charged.

Sources spoke of more than one possible attack, but the statement said the eventual target or targets had not yet been determined.

Both inquiries involved a house search in Molenbeek, an inner city Brussels district with a large North African population that has been cited in previous terror probes.