2016 Brussels police raids
| 2016 Brussels police raids | |
|---|---|
| Part of the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks | |
| Type | Police raid |
| Target | Forest and Molenbeek, Belgium |
| Date | 15/18 March 2016 |
| Outcome | Salah Abdeslam and 4 other suspects arrested |
| Casualties |
15 March:
18 March:
|
15 March:
18 March:
On 15 and 18 March 2016, Belgian police carried out raids on houses in Brussels. The raids were conducted in connection to the attacks in Paris four months earlier. In the raids, one suspect was killed and five others were arrested, including Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of direct involvement in the Paris attacks.
Police carried out a raid on a house in Forest, a suburb of Brussels. A police statement said that the raid was related to the November 2015 Paris attacks. The house was situated in the Rue du Dries, near the Audi factory in Forest. Four police officers, one of them French, were wounded in the raid. One suspect was killed, and a manhunt went underway for two other suspects.
The suspect killed was identified by Belgian police as Mohamed Belkaid, a 35-year-old Algerian citizen. Belkaid immigrated to and lived for several years in Sweden, where he married a Swedish woman who was fifteen years older than him. During this period, he was sent to prison four times. In 2014, he traveled to Syria to commit jihad. Belkaid is believed to have been an associate of Salah Abdeslam, a suspected accomplice in the Paris attacks. He was killed after being shot by a police sniper, but not before his actions allowed Abdeslam and another suspect to escape through the rooftops.
Two other suspects, brothers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui, evaded capture during the raid. They later committed suicide bombings in Brussels a week later on 22 March.
It was reported that an ISIS flag and Salafist literature were found in the flat, together with a Kalashnikov rifle and ammunition. Also found were detonators that investigators now believe were intended to be used during 22 March bombings in Brussels.
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Wikipedia