Planned terrorist attack thwarted in Verviers, Belgium

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Two terrorist suspects were killed on Thursday afternoon during an operation carried out in Verviers, Belgium on Thursday afternoon, the federal police announced at a press conference Thursday evening in Brussels.

A third suspect was arrested. The security threat level has been raised to 3 out of 4 by OCAM (Belgian organization for analysis of terrorism and extremism). No link has been made with the recent events that took place in France last week.

In total, ten searches in the Brussels districts, Verviers and the commune of Hal-Vilvorde just outside Brussels have been carried out on terrorist suspects. The mayor of Moleenbeek in Brussels confirms that three house searches have taken place.

The operational investigation concerns specifically people who have recently come back from Syria and were planning terrorist attacks against police head departments. A bomb alarm has been reported against the Brussels police headquarter.

During the raid in Verviers, the suspects opened fire against the police with both hand guns and heavy fire arms. Two terrorist suspects were killed and a third was wounded and arrested. It is believed that the three terrorists were planning an attack on police in the city.

A press conference will take place on Friday morning, 11am where more information about the searches will be provided.

The Brussels Times - Planned terrorist attack thwarted in Verviers, Belgium - 2 suspects killed and 1 wounded

 

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[KingWest]

Good police work! Good thing it all ended without casualties on the civilian/police side.

Edit: there is no direct link between the attacks in Paris, and the planned terrorist attack in Belgium. If the attack went trough however, the police feared an attack even bigger as the one that took place in Paris.

Different police station in Bussels are closed for the coming days. Police must wear bulletproofvests, can carry there gun to there home (was not allowed before), and the police must patrol with a minumum of 2 police offers for the coming days.

Edit 2: All mayor Jewish schools in Brussels and Antwerp are closed for the coming days. (there live around 20.000 ultraorthodox Jews in antwerp).

 

[RescueRanger]

Good riddance.

 

[Hakan]

Good. Get all of the terrorists before they kill more people.

 

[chhota bheem]

Good job

 

[Foggy_Bottom]

Good police work! Good thing it all ended without casualties on the civilian/police side.

Edit: there is no direct link between the attacks in Paris, and the planned terrorist attack in Belgium. If the attack went trough however, the police feared an attack even bigger as the one that took place in Paris.

Different police station in Bussels are closed for the coming days. Police must wear bulletproofvests, can carry there gun to there home (was not allowed before), and the police must patrol with a minumum of 2 police offers for the coming days.

Edit 2: All mayor Jewish schools in Brussels and Antwerp are closed for the coming days. (there live around 20.000 ultraorthodox Jews in antwerp).

CNN was reporting : A Western intelligence source said the Paris attacks played a role in accelerating the timing of the Belgian operation.

One reason: The arrest of a Belgian arms dealer suspected of providing weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, the man who attacked a Paris kosher supermarket and also pledged allegiance to ISIS. Belgian investigators questioned him and searched his possessions, the source said.

Through the arms dealer, the investigators got a number of "positive hits" on suspected extremists already known to authorities. But in the wake of the Paris attacks, the source said, it stepped up the urgency.

 

[KingWest]

CNN was reporting : A Western intelligence source said the Paris attacks played a role in accelerating the timing of the Belgian operation.

One reason: The arrest of a Belgian arms dealer suspected of providing weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, the man who attacked a Paris kosher supermarket and also pledged allegiance to ISIS. Belgian investigators questioned him and searched his possessions, the source said.

Through the arms dealer, the investigators got a number of "positive hits" on suspected extremists already known to authorities. But in the wake of the Paris attacks, the source said, it stepped up the urgency.

I am providing you the information I get from Belgian news papers. And they all say that there is no direct link between the terrorist attacks in France, and the once they planned in Belgium. The attacks however where planned from people who recently got back from Syria, and ofcourse the terror attacks in Paris accelerated the timing of the operatians in Europe. (There where coordinated anti-terror opperations in 7 different countries in Europe I believe, but only in Belgium people died)
"The police forces where preparing for this action for the last couple of weeks"

Geen band met Parijs
"Er is geen directe band met de daders in Parijs. De politiediensten waren deze actie al weken aan het voorbereiden. De doelwitten van de verdachten waren politiemensen of politiegebouwen", stelt een woordvoerder van het parket nog in interviews na de persconferentie.
Er werd een tiental huiszoekingen verricht in Verviers, Brussel en Halle-Vilvoorde.
Twee doden bij antiterreuractie: alles wat we weten- HLN.be

 

[rockstar08]

you know i dont know but i feel that a much more hard time will be coming on the muslims on Europe and through out the west ... may God forbid , but if the in the news seems legitimate , this is scary ... I am not afraid of Islam , but their version of Islam ..

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Belgium police killed 2 Muslims

Ce que l'on sait de l'opération antiterroriste en Belgique

1. The operation was the result of surveillance that began well before the Paris attacks and seems unconnected to them. Belgian police developed information that a cell in Verviers was planning a major terrorist attack, and went in to forestall it. As they approached the apartment, which was above a bakery, they started receiving semi-automatic and handgun fire. Explosives also went off, though the sequence is not clear. The police killed two members of the cell and captured a third. Previous to the raid, Belgian police went into the Brussels suburb of Zaventem and arrested two suspected radical vigilantes.

2. After the three assailants were neutralized, police found 4 Kalashnikov machine guns, bomb-making equipment and police uniforms in the apartment.

3. The BBC learned from Mark Eeckhaut, a Belgian journalist, that the cell had been planning to attack a police station. (Presumably the uniforms in their apartment were intended to allow them into the building under a false flag).
4. The police also launched operations late on Thursday in the capital of Brussels and in nearby towns such as Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Anderlecht and Schaerbeek.

5. The cell and its planned attack on police appear to have been a homegrown Belgian operation and for the moment no ties are suspected between it and the Kouashi Bros. cell in Paris.
6. Some members of the cell are said to have been returnees from fighting in Syria. About 310 Belgian Muslim young men appear to have gone to fight in Syria, with 40 having been killed there and 170 still in the field. About 100 have returned to Belgium.

7. Note that 310 volunteers for Syria out of some 500,000 Muslims is not very many, contrary to what some press reports imply. It is a fraction of a percent. You can get 300 people to believe almost anything (e.g. Heaven’s Gate ). Moreover, there are all kinds of rebel groups fighting the government in Syria, and you can’t just assume that the 100 returnees all served with al-Qaeda or Daesh (ISIS or ISIL). Several of the major rebel groups in Syria that they would have joined are extremist. The Support Front or Jabhat al-Nusra is an al-Qaeda affiliate. Daesh controls much of eastern Syria now. The Saudi-backed Islamic Front in Aleppo has become more and more extreme. However, in the past 4 years or so there have been moderate and even secular-minded rebel groups, so that they are returnees does not necessarily mean they are al-Qaeda. It would matter with which group they fought. There is lots of evidence that many young men come back from Syria to Europe, having been deeply disappointed with the mindless violence and corruption of the al-Qaeda offshoots.

8. That fringe of Belgian Muslims which admire the Support Front or kindred groups are likely especially angered that Belgian F-16s have flown several missions against Daesh in Syria and Iraq.