Cross-border cooperation
The attacks also point to good cross-border cooperation among the assailants.
A case in point is Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the Paris attacks who was caught in a Brussels police raid last week.
On Thursday, his lawyer Sven Mary said he wanted to be transferred to France “rapidly.” Mary also told the French News Agency his client “was not aware” that the Brussels attacks were being plotted.
Yet last week, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders said Abdeslam told investigators he had been “ready to restart something” in Brussels. Moreover, evidence points to ties between Abdeslam and the Brussels assailants.
Abdeslam and suicide bomber Laachraoui were spotted last September at the the Austria-Hungarian border, driving in a rented Mercedes with a third suspect, Mohamed Belkaid, who was killed during last week’s police raid in the Brussels neighborhood of Forest.
Many other suspects in the Paris and Brussels terrorists attacks also appear united by tangled bonds of childhood friendships, family ties or shared prison terms.
Both attackers included pairs of brothers, underscoring yet another pattern among jihadi fighters, experts say. Salah Abdeslam’s brother Brahim was among the Paris suicide bombers, while the two El Bakraoui brothers both blew themselves up in the Paris attacks.
Belgians mourn victims
Meanwhile, the country remains in mourning for the victims of the Brussels attacks. Flags are at half-staff, and another moment of silence was to be held Thursday afternoon for the victims.
At the Place de la Bourse, in downtown Brussels, a steady stream of visitors arrived to place candles and flowers at a makeshift shrine. Hundreds gathered for a second consecutive night on Wednesday to sing and post messages of peace and Belgian pride.
“I came came here to show I wasn’t afraid,” said 85-year-old Nicole Olyff who wandered around the square. “And I’m happy to see there are still tourists in Brussels and so many people coming here.”
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