Brussels Attacks: El Bakraoui Brothers Named As Suicide Bomber

Brussels: The two suicide bombers who carried
out the attacks in Brussels airport on Tuesday
were brothers Khalid and Brahim El Bakraoui,
Brussels residents known to the police for
crime, the RTBF public broadcaster said, quoting
an unnamed source.
Belgian police identified two suspected ISIS
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.
Thenumber of deaths in the attacks on the
Belgian capital, home to the European Union
institutions and NATO, rose to at least 30 with
more than 200 wounded, Health Minister Maggie
De Block said on VRT television.
The Syrian-based Islamist terrorist group
claimed responsibility four days after the arrest
in Brussels of a prime suspect in November's
Paris attacks. 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.
Khalid had rented under a false name the
apartment in the city's Forest borough, where
police hunting Abdeslam killed a gunman in a
raid last week, RTBF said.
The Brussels blasts fuelled political debate
across the globe about how to combat militants.
"We can and we will defeat those who threaten
the safety andsecurity of people all around the
world," said US President Barack Obama.
Donald Trump, the front-runner for the
Republican nomination to succeed Obama in
November's US election, suggested suspects
could be tortured to avert such attacks.
Brussels police searched a house in the north
of the city late into the night, turning up
another bomb, an Islamic State flag and bomb-
making chemicals in an apartment in the
borough of Schaerbeek.
Local media said authorities had followed a tip
from a taxi driver who may have driven the
bombers to the airport.
Investigators said they were focusing on a man
in a hat who was caught on CCTV pushing a
laden baggage trolley at the airport with two
others they believed were the bombers. An
unused explosive device was later found at the
airport and the man, believed to be Laachraoui,
was seen running away from the terminal after
the explosions.
Closing In
Security experts believed the blasts, which killed
about 20 people on a metro train running
through the area that houses EU institutions,
were probably in preparation before Friday's
arrest of locally based French national
Abdeslam, 26, whom prosecutors accuse of a
key role in the November 13 Paris attacks.
He was caught and has been speaking to
investigators after a shootout at an apartment
in the south of the city a week ago,after which
another Islamic State flag and explosives were
found. It was unclear whether he had knowledge
of the new attack or whether accomplices may
have feared police were closing in.
Islamic State said in a statement that "caliphate
soldiers,strapped with suicide vests and carrying
explosive devices and machine guns" struck
Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station.
It was not clear, however, that the attackers
used vests.The suspects were photographed
pushing bags on trolleys, and witnesses said
many of the airport dead and wounded were hit
mostly in the legs, possibly indicating blasts at
floor level.
Officials said the final death tolls remained
uncertain from the carnage in the morning rush
hour, around 8 a.m. (0700 GMT)at the airport
and shortly after 9 a.m. on the metro.
"A photograph of three male suspects was taken
at Zaventem.Two of them seem to have
committed suicide attacks. The third,wearing a
light-coloured jacket and a hat, is actively being
sought," prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw told a
news conference.
The two men in dark clothes wore gloves on
their left hands only. One security expert
speculated they might have concealed
detonators. The man in the hat was not wearing
any gloves.
"If you recognise this individual or if you have
information on this attack, please contact the
investigators," a police wanted notice for the
third man read. "Discretion assured."
Islamic State warned of "black days" for those
fighting it in Syria and Iraq. Belgian warplanes
have joined the coalition in the Middle East, but
Brussels has long been a centre of Islamist
militancy.
About 300 Belgians are estimated to have fought
with Islamists in Syria, making the country of 11
million the leading European exporter of foreign
fighters and a focus of concern in France and
other neighbours over its security capabilities.
"What we had feared has come to pass," said
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, vowing to
face down the threat.
On Wednesday, he will host a prearranged visit
by French Premier Manuel Valls, who declared:
"We are at war."
Reviving arguments over Belgian policies
following the Paris attacks, in which 130 people
were killed in an operation apparently organised
from Brussels, French Finance Minister Michel
Sapin spoke of "naivete" on the part of "certain
leaders"in holding back from security
crackdowns on Muslim communities.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders
retorted that each country should look to its
own social problems, saying that France too had
rough high-rise suburbs in which militants had
become radicalised.
Life began to return to normal in Brussels on
Wednesday, with some public transport working
and cars returning to the European district, but
the metro system remained closed and the
airport was still shut to travellers.