the Islamic State group claims responsibility for the attack that killed two Swedes

2023-10-17 22:31:48

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – Number of victims, international reactions… Le Figaro takes stock of the deadly shooting in the Belgian capital.

Terrorism has struck Belgium again. This Monday, October 16 in the evening, around 7 p.m., a man opened fire on several people in Brussels, killing two people and seriously injuring one.

In claim videos cited by the authorities, the attacker, on the run and sought all night by the police, said he was specifically targeting Swedes, many of whom were present in the capital for a football match. The suspect was arrested on the morning of Tuesday October 17 in the suburbs of Brussels, and died after being hit by police fire.

The Islamic State group claims responsibility for the attack

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack that killed two Swedes in Brussels.

More information to come…

Two dead and one seriously injured

Two people were killed in the attack, one of Swedish nationality, the other of Swedish origin and probably having Swiss nationality (or dual nationality), according to Belgian federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw. According to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs quoted by Swedish television SVT, one of the victims is said to be around sixty years old. The other victim would be in his seventies, again according to the ministry, and from the Stockholm region.

A third person was injured during the shooting. “ She is still in the hospital. He is also a person of Swedish nationality », underlined Frédéric van Leeuw. This victim is in his seventies, according to information from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and however seems out of danger.

The suspect fled

The suspect managed to flee after his attack. He was finally arrested this Tuesday morning in Schaerbeek, where the attacker resided, announced the federal prosecutor’s office. An assault rifle identical to the one used during the attack was found next to him, assures Belgian Interior Minister Annelis Verlinden.

He was spotted by a witness in a drinking establishment shortly after 8 a.m., who notified the police. The police opened fire and injured the suspect during his arrest. He died in hospital. The assailant’s home was searched during the night from Monday to Tuesday, but no one was found there, the attorney general had indicated earlier during a press conference.

The attacker, a 45-year-old Tunisian who had served a prison sentence in Sweden

Authorities earlier claimed to have identified the assailant, wearing an orange vest and traveling on a motorcycle during his attack. This is Abdesalem L., a 45-year-old Tunisian in an irregular situation on Belgian territory. He filed an asylum application in 2019, which was rejected the following year.

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Known to police services for “suspected acts of human trafficking, illegal residence and attacks on state security», according to the Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, he was not being monitored for radicalization, despite several reports. “No concrete indication of radicalization» had not been found after a report in 2016, and a meeting was planned for Tuesday to discuss his case after a new report made “earlier this year“. According to the Swedish Migration Agency, he had served a prison sentence in Sweden in the years 2012-2014, the Swedish Migration Agency said on Tuesday.

Two protest videos

The federal prosecutor’s office, responsible for terrorism, was seized of the investigation. “A claim video was released, in which the individual claims to have killed three Swedes», Said Attorney General Frédéric Van Leeuw. “In another video taken before the attack, the same individual appears hooded and declares that “the book of Allah is a red line for which he sacrifices himself”», added the prosecutor. A probable reference to the Korans burned in Sweden in recent months.

Earlier, Belgian authorities indicated that the attacker had claimed to be from the Islamic State in a video, and had indicated that he wanted to target Swedes.

The alert level raised in Brussels

The alert level for terrorist threat was raised to 4 in the Belgian capital, the highest, implying a “reinforced police presence», According to the Prime Minister. It was also raised to 3 in the rest of the country.

On the French side, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin indicated that he had reinforced the numbers at the border, although he assured at the start of the morning on RTL that he had not “information like what [le suspect] would head towards France».

Also read: “He has a weapon and he’s coming towards you, don’t leave the stadium”: the story of a bloody night in Brussels

The 35,000 spectators who attended the Belgium-Sweden match, interrupted after the attack, were able to leave the King Baudouin stadium in the evening after having been confined there. The Swedish supporters were escorted back to the airport under police escort.

“Terrorism will never win”

On the X network (formerly Twitter), Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said:devastated» by this attack, also condemned by several European leaders.

French President Emmanuel Macron deplored a “Islamist terrorist attack“. France has announced a strengthening of its border controls.

Alexander De Croo offered his condolences to his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson, and called for unity in “the fight against terrorism“. In the claim video, “the Swedish nationality of the victims is mentioned as a probable motivation for the act», Specified a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office, Eric Van Duyse.

Furthermore, a “moment of silence» will be observed on Tuesday before all qualifying matches for Euro-2024 to pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the Brussels attack, UEFA announced.

The threat of attacks “will persist”

Sweden, whose image had deteriorated significantly this summer in the Muslim world after several desecrations of the Koran authorized on its soil, decided on August 17 to raise its terrorist alert level, estimating that the threat of attacks “will persist for a long time». «At this stage, there is no evidence of a potential link with the Israeli-Palestinian situation“, underlined Eric Van Duyse.

In the context of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, France went into “emergency attack» after the assassination of a teacher stabbed in a high school by a radicalized former student.

For its part, Belgium has already been the target of several attacks claimed by the Islamic State group. The deadliest was perpetrated on March 22, 2016, when Brussels was hit by a double suicide attack at Zaventem airport and in the metro in the middle of the European district. There were 35 deaths. This attack was committed by a jihadist cell piloted from Syria and already behind the attacks of November 13, 2015 in France (130 dead).

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