Terrorism has struck again on European soil. Monday October 16, in Brussels, just before the Euro 2024 qualifying match between the Belgian national team and Sweden, a man opened fire on supporters, killing two Swedish nationals and injuring another person. Dressed in a fluorescent vest and armed with an automatic rifle, the attacker, who allegedly claimed membership in the Islamic State, and boasted of having killed “disbelievers”, immediately fled on a scooter.
A video message of protest was posted on social networks by a man “presenting himself as the attacker and claiming to be inspired by the Islamic State”, underlined the federal prosecutor’s office, responsible for terrorism cases, which was seized of investigation.
After a night of research, the triggering of the highest level of terrorist threat for the Brussels-Capital region and the strengthening of controls at the Franco-Belgian border, a man suspected of being the author of the attack was neutralized Tuesday morning in the Belgian capital, according to the federal prosecutor’s office, which confirmed his death. The arrest took place in the Brussels commune of Schaerbeek, where a building had been searched during the night. “The police opened fire,” said spokesperson Eric Van Duyse.
Known to the police
Although the identity of the individual who was neutralized during the police assault last night has not yet been confirmed, the profile of the suspect has been revealed by numerous Belgian media. Of Tunisian origin, Abdesalem L., 45, was in an irregular situation on Belgian territory. He was known to the police but was not on the list of radicalized people.
His request for asylum made in November 2019, the year he arrived in Belgium, was refused a year later, according to Nicole de Moor, Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration. She added that as he had been “delisted from the national register” by local authorities on February 12, 2021, he could not be located for return to his country of origin. “Because of this, the order to leave the territory which was established in March 2021 could never be issued,” said the official.
As indicated by the Belgian daily The evening, Abdesalem L. therefore still resided in Brussels, in the commune of Schaerbeek, north of the capital.
“He was known to the police for human trafficking, illegal residence and endangering state security,” said the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne. According to him, a foreign police service had informed in 2016 that the asylum seeker had a “radical” profile and would be a candidate for jihad. Information “like dozens existed daily at the time”, however, tempered Vincent Van Quickenborne, specifying that he had been convicted in Tunisia “for common law crimes”, but was not reported as presenting a “terrorist risk”.
No proven link with the situation in the Middle East
Earlier this year, he was reported to the police by a resident of an asylum center in the Kempen region near Antwerp, who claimed that Abdesalem L. had threatened him and that he had been convicted of terrorism in Tunisia. A meeting of the Joint Information Center, a structure created after the attacks of March 2016 to monitor terrorism cases, was even convened on this subject by the federal judicial police in Antwerp for Tuesday October 17, even if it was not was “no question of a concrete or imminent terrorist threat”, clarified the Minister of Justice.
As indicated for its part by the Flemish daily Het Laatste Nieuws, on Facebook, the suspect recently shared several publications concerning the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip. But, according to the federal prosecutor’s office, the attack on Monday October 16 is not linked to recent events. “At this stage, there is no evidence to indicate a potential link with the Israeli-Palestinian situation,” said federal prosecutor Eric Van Duyse.
On the other hand, “the Swedish nationality of the victims is mentioned as a probable motivation” for the October 16 attack in Brussels, indicates the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, while Al-Qaeda threatened Sweden just a month ago. In a propaganda publication, the terrorist group in the Arabian Peninsula criticized France and Sweden for being at war against Islam.