Belgian authorities have identified two suspected suicide bombers, who carried out an attack on Brussels’ airport, the first of two attacks in the Belgian capital.
Belgian police identified two suspected Islamic State suicide bombers captured on security cameras before they struck Brussels Airport on Tuesday in the first of two attacks that also hit the city’s metro, public broadcaster RTBF said on Wednesday.
The death toll in the attacks on the Belgian capital, home to the European Union institutions and NATO, rose to at least 31 with more than 200 wounded, Health Minister Maggie De Block said on VRT television.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Brussels, four days after the arrest of a prime suspect in November’s Paris attacks in the city. If confirmed, the identifications would link the Brussels blasts directly to the jailed Paris suspect, Salah Abdeslam.
The attacks sent shockwaves across Europe and around the world, with authorities racing to review security at airports and on public transport, and rekindled debate about European security cooperation and police methods.
RTBF, quoting a police source, named the suspected bombers as Khalid and Brahim El Bakraoui, two brothers resident in Brussels and known to the security services for crime.
The newspaper DH said a third suspect seen with them before running away from the airport after the blasts was identified as Najim Laachraoui, 25, a man sought by police and directly linked to Abdeslam.
ATW Network 