Earlier today and on several occasions since Tuesday morning when the Bakraoui brothers blew themselves up at the Brussels airport and city metro, we’ve documented the connection between the Brussels attacks, the brazen assault on Paris in November, and other terror-related events that have unfolded in Belgium over the past 14 months.
Here are some bullet points worth noting:
- In January 2015, two men are killed in a police raid on a flat in Verviers; the men are later pictured with Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud in a cover story for Islamic State magazine Dabiq
- In September, one “Soufiane Kayal” was seen with Salah Abdeslam at a Hungary-Austria border checkpoint; Kayal would later turn out to be bomb maker Najim Laachraoui whose DNA was found on explosive material in Paris and also in two residences (one in Auvelais that was raided on November 26 and one on Rue Henri Bergé, in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels that was searched in December); he is now thought to have blown himself up on Tuesday at the Brussels airport
- A November 30 raid on a home in Auvelais where Abaaoud may have met with suicide bombers turns up a 10-minute surveillance tape apparently filmed at the home of a senior Belgian nuclear official; reports later suggested the camera was set up and retrieved by the Bakraoui brothers
- A March 14 raid on an apartment in Forest rented to one of the Bakraoui brothers leaves one gunman dead, but two other presumed jihadis escape; Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslam’s fingerprints are found in the apartment
And the list goes on. The takeaway seems to be that beginning some years ago, Abdelhamid Abaaoud (who allegedly became Emir of War in Deir ez-Zor after Omar the Chechen was transferred to Iraq) established the Brussels cell and it’s been growing and building its operational capabilities ever since.
For those interested in understanding how it all fits together, we bring you the following org chart from The Guardian: