ROME - Belgium’s capital will remain on virtual lockdown for days while the country’s hard-pressed security services try to determine who was behind Tuesday’s bomb attacks - whether the perpetrators and planners were surviving members of the large network behind last November’s terrorist strike in Paris or the work of a new group that authorities have failed to identify.
Belgian security officials as well as independent analysts suspect that Tuesday’s blasts at Brussels airport and a metro station near the headquarters of the European Union were likely not planned as revenge for the arrest last week of Salah Abdeslam, who oversaw the logistics for the terrorist incident in Paris, and was wounded and apprehended after a brief shoot-out.
They argue the coordinated attacks on Brussels airport and on the Maelbeek metro station would have taken more than four days to plan.
“It was sophisticated and as with the Paris attacks, had many moving parts,” a senior Belgian security official told VOA. “This wasn’t something that was pulled together over the weekend - something hastily arranged to send a terror message about Abdeslam,” he said.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the sophistication could be seen on several levels and cited the fact that even the two blasts at Brussels’ Zaventem airport played off each other. He confirmed that one of the blasts was triggered by a suicide bomber, while the second explosion was triggered remotely.
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A third unexploded bomb was later found at the airport.
The security official acknowledged that Tuesday’s attacks may have been brought forward as a result of Abdeslam’s arrest for fear he may have had knowledge of the plans, which he could have disclosed to interrogators.
One urgent line of inquiry now is whether an accomplice of Abdeslam, Najim Laachraoui, a 24-year-old Belgian citizen who fought in Syria, may have been involved. If he was, then that would suggest the bombings were carried out by the remnants of the network responsible for the Paris attacks.
Shashank Joshi, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, cautions against viewing the attacks solely as revenge for Abdeslam's arrest. “This would take quite a while to plan, particularly involving an explosive, involving an airport. We should be wary of seeing it purely as a retaliation for Salah Abdeslam’s arrest,” he told British media.
Across Europe counterterrorism officials raised security threat levels. In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron called a meeting of the government’s emergency committee.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the national police counterterrorism chief, said in a statement, “As a precaution, forces across the U.K. have increased policing presence at key locations, including transport hubs, to protect the public and provide reassurance. This is not in relation to any specific information or intelligence.”
Security at Gatwick and Heathrow Airports was being stepped up as well.
Maj. Gen. Chip Chapman, the former head of counterterrorism at Britain’s Ministry of Defense, said he did not discount that the Brussels attack may have been brought forward as a result of Abdeslam’s arrest on Friday; but, he said it would have been planned weeks ago.
“This was a sophisticated attack with two locations involved and there would have been pre-planning and reconnaissance and the equipment needed would have had to be sourced.” He faulted Belgian authorities for not raising the country’s security level from Friday onward. “I am surprised they did not go to critical,” he said.
Tuesday’s coordinated attacks underline the challenge facing Belgium’s intelligence services, with some again questioning whether they are up to the daunting task. The intelligence services are not as large as those in neighboring countries. Belgian officials have admitted they have 800 “Tier One” suspected jihadists but just 1,000 civilian and military intelligence officers to counter any threat they might pose.
And they are facing, in some circumstances, not only militants who have been hardened in battles in Syria, but foes who are becoming increasingly skilled in evading electronic surveillance, from using files they have encrypted themselves to communicating via video gaming platforms and prepaid cell phones.