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Mar. 22, 2016 7:46 PM EDT
BRUSSELS (AP) — Islamic extremists struck
Tuesday in the heart of Europe, killing at least 34 people and wounding scores
of others in back-to-back bombings of the Brussels airport and subway that
again laid bare the continent's vulnerability to suicide squads.
Bloodied and dazed travelers staggered from the
airport after two explosions — at least one blamed on a suicide attacker and
another apparently on a suitcase bomb — tore through crowds checking in for
morning flights. About 40 minutes later, another rush-hour blast ripped through
a subway car in central Brussels as it left the Maelbeek station, in the heart
of the European Union's capital city.
Authorities released a photo taken from
closed-circuit TV footage of three men pushing luggage carts in the airport,
saying two of them apparently were suicide bombers and that the third — dressed
in a light-colored coat, black hat and glasses — was at large. They urged the
public to reach out to police if they recognized him. The two men believed to
be the suicide attackers apparently were wearing dark gloves on their left
hands, possibly to hide detonators.
In police raids Tuesday across Belgium,
authorities later found a nail-filled bomb, chemical products and an Islamic
State flag in a house in the Schaerbeek neighborhood, the state prosecutors'
office said in a statement.
AFAR Media
In its claim of responsibility, the Islamic
State group said its members detonated suicide vests both at the airport and in
the subway, where many passengers fled to safety down dark tunnels filled with
hazy smoke from the explosion. A small child wailed, and commuters used cell
phones to light their way out.
European security officials have been bracing
for a major attack for weeks and warned that IS was actively preparing to
strike. The arrest Friday of Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the Nov. 13
attacks in Paris, heightened those fears, as investigators said many more
people were involved than originally thought and that some are still on the
loose.
"In this time of tragedy, this black
moment for our country, I appeal to everyone to remain calm but also to show
solidarity," said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, who announced
three days of mourning in his country's deadliest terror strike.
"Last year it was Paris. Today it is
Brussels. It's the same attacks," said French President Francois Hollande.
Shockwaves from the attacks crossed Europe and
the Atlantic, prompting heightened security at airports and other sites.
Belgium raised its terror alert to the highest
level, shut the airport through Wednesday and ordered a city-wide lockdown,
deploying about 500 soldiers onto Brussels' largely empty streets to bolster
police checkpoints. France and Belgium both reinforced border security.
Justice ministers and interior ministers from
across the 28-nation EU planned an emergency meeting, possibly Thursday
morning, to assess the fallout. The subway blast hit beneath buildings that
normally host EU meetings and house the union's top leadership.
Medical officials treating the wounded said
some victims lost limbs, while others suffered burns or deep gashes from
shattered glass or suspected nails packed in with the explosives. Among the
most seriously wounded were several children.
The bombings came barely four months after
suicide attackers based in Brussels' heavily Muslim Molenbeek district
slaughtered 130 people at a Paris nightspots, and intelligence agencies had warned
for months a follow-up strike was inevitable. Paris fugitive Abdeslam was
arrested in Molenbeek.
A high-level Belgian judicial official said a
connection by Abdeslam to Tuesday's attacks is "a lead to pursue."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was
ongoing.
Abdeslam has told investigators he was planning
to "restart something" from Brussels, said Belgian Foreign Minister
Didier Reynders. He said Sunday that authorities took the claim seriously
because "we found a lot of weapons, heavy weapons in the first
investigations and we have seen a new network of people around him in
Brussels."
While Belgian authorities knew that some kind
of extremist act was being prepared in Europe, "we never could have
imagined something of this scale," Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon
said.
Officials at the airport in the Brussels suburb
of Zaventem said police had discovered a Kalashnikov assault rifle and an
explosives-packed vest abandoned at the facility, offering one potential lead
for forensic evidence. Bomb disposal experts safely dismantled that explosive
device.
A U.S. administration official said American
intelligence officers were working with their European counterparts to try to
identify the apparently skilled bomb-maker or makers involved in the Brussels
attacks and to identify any links to the bombs used in Paris.
The official, who wasn't authorized to speak
publicly on the investigations and demanded anonymity, told The Associated
Press that at least one of the bombs at the airport was suspected to have been
packed into a suitcase left in the departures hall.
Several Americans were among the wounded,
including an Air Force lieutenant colonel stationed in the Netherlands, his
wife and four children who were at the airport. Mormon church officials,
meanwhile, said three of its missionaries from Utah were seriously injured in
the blasts and were hospitalized.
Three intelligence officials in Iraq told the
AP that they had warned European colleagues last month of IS plans to attack
airports and trains, although Belgium wasn't specified as a likely target. The
officials, who monitor activities in the IS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, said
Brussels may have become a target because of the arrest of Abdeslam.
One of the officials — all of whom spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about their knowledge
of IS operations — said Iraqi intelligence officials believe that three other
IS activists remain at large in Brussels and are plotting other suicide-bomb
attacks.
European leaders already struggling to cope
with a wave of migration from the war-torn Middle East said they must rely on
better anti-terrorist intelligence work to identify an enemy that wears no
uniform and seeks the softest of targets. They emphasized that Europe must
remain tolerant toward Muslims as they seek to identify those on the violent
extremist fringe.
Leaders of the 28-nation EU said in a joint
statement that Tuesday's assault on Brussels "only strengthens our resolve
to defend European values and tolerance from the attacks of the
intolerant."
The U.N. lead official for Middle East
refugees, Amin Awad, warned that Europe faced an increasing risk of racist
retaliation against Muslim immigrant communities. "Any sort of hostilities
because of the Brussels attack or Paris attack is misplaced," Awad said.
Reflecting the trauma of the moment, Belgian
officials offered uncertain casualty totals at both the airport and subway.
Police conducted controlled explosions on suspicious abandoned packages that
ultimately were found to contain no explosives.
The government said at least 11 people were
killed at the airport and 20 on the subway, where the bomb hit an enclosed
train car. Later, a security official said the overall death toll had risen to
34, without providing a breakdown of where.
In the airport, video posted on social media
showed people cowering on the ground in the wake of the blasts, the air acrid
with smoke, windows of shops and the terminal entrance shattered, and fallen
ceiling tiles littering the blood-streaked floor.
Some witnesses described hearing two distinct
blasts, with shouts apparently in Arabic from at least one attacker before the
second, bigger explosion.
Zach Mouzoun, who arrived on a flight from
Geneva about 10 minutes before the airport blasts, told France's BFM television
that pipes ruptured, sending a cascade of water mixing with victims' blood.
Marc Noel was about to board a Delta flight to
Atlanta. The Belgian native, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, said the
first blast happened about 50 yards (meters) from him. "People were
crying, shouting, children. ... It was a horrible experience," he said.
A random decision to pause in a shop to buy a
magazine may have saved his life. Otherwise, he said, "I would probably
have been in that place when the bomb went off."
Anthony Deloos, an airport worker for
Swissport, which handles check-in and baggage services, said the first blast
took place near the Swissport counters where customers pay for overweight bags.
He and a colleague said the second blast struck near a Starbucks cafe.
Deloos said a colleague shouted at him to run
as the blast sent clouds of shredded paper billowing through the air, and
"I jumped into a luggage chute to be safe."
Passengers on other trains said many commuters
were reading about the airport attacks on their smartphones when they heard the
subway blast. Hundreds fled from stopped trains down tunnel tracks to adjacent
stations. Many told stories of having missed the bomb by minutes or seconds.
Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur said more than 100
were wounded in the subway blast. Rescue workers set up makeshift first aid
centers in a nearby pub and hotel.
"It was panic everywhere. There were a lot
of people in the metro," said commuter Alexandre Brans, wiping blood from
his face.
Political leaders and others around the world
expressed their shock at the attacks.
"We will do whatever is necessary to
support our friend and ally Belgium in bringing to justice those who are
responsible," U.S. President Barack Obama said, ordering American flags lowered
to half-staff through Saturday.
Belgium's king and queen said they were
"devastated" by the violence, describing the attacks as "odious
and cowardly."
After nightfall, Europe's best-known monuments
— the Eiffel Tower, the Brandenburg Gate and the Trevi Fountain — were
illuminated with Belgium's national colors in a show of solidarity.
___
Associated
Press writers Lorne Cook, John-Thor Dahlburg and Angela Charlton in Brussels,
Lori Hinnant, Elaine Ganley and John Leicester in Paris, Jill Lawless in
London, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Bradley Klapper
in Washington and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.
source: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/511cf974eea64581814f9777a40f0fd6/explosion-heard-brussels-airport
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