Belgium destroys large-scale terrorist plotters
Belgian counter-terrorism units on January 15 carried out a series of raids, killing two suspects and arresting several others accused of plotting large-scale terrorist attacks. On the same day, Belgium raised the terror threat level nationwide.
At a press conference held at 8:20 p.m. on January 15 (2:20 a.m. on January 16, Hanoi time), the Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office said that during a raid in the city center of Verviers in the east of the country, suspects opened fire on police.
| RELATED NEWS |
|---|
 |
| Belgian police block off streets after raids. (Photo: AFP) |
At least two suspects were killed and another arrested. All three were Belgian citizens. No police or civilians were injured in the shooting.
Verviers is a predominantly Muslim city near the German border. Belgian counter-terrorism units have also carried out around 10 raids in Brussels and its suburbs.
The raids were carried out as part of an investigation into an action cell made up of people who had recently returned from Syria and were preparing large-scale terrorist attacks across Belgium.
The terrorist attack will be carried out in a similar manner to the one carried out in France. In addition, according to information from VTM TV channel, two other jihadists were arrested on the same day at Zaventem airport in the capital Brussels.
The federal police headquarters was also hit by a bomb threat, forcing the entire building to be evacuated. The Belgian prosecutor's office said there was no link between the terror plot in the country and the attacks in Paris last week.
The Belgian Government's Office for Coordination of Threat Analysis (OCAM) has raised the national alert level from level 2 to level 3 (on a four-level scale), meaning the situation is quite serious.
According to official Belgian statistics, 325 people have left the country to join the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) organization in Iraq and Syria.
In May 2014, a man who had returned from Syria murdered four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels./.
According to VNA
