Brussels attacks: 'Fight the westerners' text sent to youths in Molenbeek

Brussels attacks: 'Fight the westerners' text sent to youths in Molenbeek . (Guardian).

Messages, feared to be from Isis recruiters, sent on Sunday after video online apparently showed young people celebrating attacks.

Young men in the Molenbeek district of Brussels were sent messages over the weekend calling on them to “make the right choice” and “fight the westerners”.

The texts were sent on Sunday night from a prepaid account that could not be traced or replied to. It followed a video distributed on Facebook, since removed, apparently showing local youths celebrating the attacks in Brussels last week. The death toll from the bombings has risen to 35, Belgium’s health minister said on Monday.


The short SMS message written in French, which the Guardian has seen, says: “My brother, why not fight the westerners? Make the right choice in your life.”

Jamal Ikazban, the local Socialist party MP, told the Guardian that the communications were stoking tensions in the community. “These people are trying to take our youth by storm,” he said.

“It is like having a big-time drug dealer outside the school gates. We feel the same. They have to be taken off the streets. They are predators and our youths are the victims.”


For jihadis to be brazen enough to put out propaganda during a police crackdown after the attacks was “cheeky”, Ikazban said. Read the full story here.

Belgium Police arrest two accused in planning New Year's terror plot.

Belgium Police arrest two accused in planning New Year's terror plot. (CNN).

Belgian authorities have arrested two people on suspicion of being involved in a plot to attack "Symbolic sites" in Belgium's capital during New Year's celebrations, the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

The plot appears to have been inspired, but not directed, by the ISIS terror group, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official told CNN on condition of anonymity.

The prosecutor's office said the arrests are not linked to November's deadly Paris terror attacks, which authorities say involved a number of militants who had been living in Belgium.

The arrests are connected to an alleged plot that was to target several prominent sites in Brussels during "the end of the year/New Year's celebrations."

The Police searches took place in the regions of Brussels, Liege and Flemish Brabant.

Six people were taken in for questioning . " The investigating judge has placed two people under arrest warrant , the first because of threatening with terrorist attacks , participation in the activities of a terrorist group as a leading figure and recruiting people with the purpose of committing terrorist offenses, the second because of threatening with terrorism attacks, participation in the activities of a terrorist group. the other people were put back into freedom by the examining magistrate. "

During the searches were among other computer equipment, military training attire and IS propaganda material found. All that is now thoroughly examined. Weapons or explosives were not found according to the investigators. Read the full story.

Two Tunisian - Belgian brothers arrested In Belgium In Probe Of Paris Terrorist Attacks.

Two Tunisian - Belgian brothers arrested In Belgium In Probe Of Paris Terrorist Attacks. (HLN). [GoogleTranslated].

The father of the brothers, who were arrested last night in the investigation into the attacks in Paris, said in an interview with tvbrussel, he noticed nothing that would have pointed to a radicalization process in his sons Hamza and Sabri.

The brothers were arrested yesterday evening in the Sleutelstraat in Brussels. Hamza (23) works as a security guard in the seaside town of Ostend and Sabri (30) works in a Brussels bookstore.

The father, who did not want to testify in front of the camera, is a Tunisian and arrived in the 70s in Belgium. His family has lived since 1982 in Brussels. The eldest brother Sabri lives with his wife and three children on the fourth floor in an apartment in the Sleutelstraat.

Telephony Research has shown that the terrorists while they were executing their massacre in the French capital, they were directly in contact with two mobiles appliances in Belgium. 

The main suspect is not one of the two brothers who were arrested during the search. The investigators hope through them to get to the "director." What role both brothers just played, and whether they had anything to do with the attacks, is not yet clear.

Who is the man behind this mobile phone sets, is not known. But he would be searched as hard as the fugitive terrorist Salah Abdeslam (26) and Mohamed Abrini (30). The investigators assume that the man in question was not just indirectly involved in the terror, but possibly Directed the whole attack and coordinated it from Belgium. 

  In total Five people were taken in custody (French).

Police detained two brothers and their friends in a raid on a central district of Brussels late on December 20. Two more people were taken into custody in another search on December 21 in the north of the city.

Video - During recent Pro Gaza demonstrations in Brussels, protesters were already openly Showing ISIS Support.

Images found on FB of Bilal Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers Account show that he was in the pro Gaza rally July 14 https://t.co/HszCLs7arZ

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) November 18, 2015

@RomainCaillet Les images retrouvées sur le compte FB de Bilal Hadfi, un des kamikazes montrent qu'il était à la manif pro gaza en Juillet14

— Niv Edry (@NivEdry) November 18, 2015

Video - Belgium - Molenbeek: Salah Abdeslam was reportedly arrested!

L'ennemi public numéro 1, Salah Abdeslam aurait été arrêté à Molenbeek

UPDATE: Salah Abdeslam was NOT arrested!

La vaste opération policière à Molenbeek, rue Delaunoy est terminée: Salah Abdeslam n'a pas été arrêté https://t.co/El9mOOLAN8

— RTL info (@rtlinfo) November 16, 2015

Three Belgian brothers involved In Paris terror attack: one dead, one was released, one on the run

One of the wanted brothers.

Three Belgian brothers from Brussels involved In Paris terror attack: one dead, one in Belgium, one on the run. (HLN). [GoogleTranslated].

Belgium, according to the French "la capitale jihadiste d'Europe" (The Jihadi Capital of Europe).

• In the series of attacks Friday in Paris are three brothers involved. The three brothers were living with a French national in Belgium. 
• One of them was killed in the attacks, another is in Belgium, and the third brother is on the run, the detectives find themselves in limbo. 

He would, as is perceived in French circles of the research, be one of the perpetrators who is on the run. The French court has just circulated a photograph of the suspect

One of the brothers was arrested in the raids that took place in Molenbeek. He was in custody, but according to a police source meanwhile released after questioning.  

 Update!

One of the brothers was arrested in the raids that took place in Molenbeek. He is in custody. For a while reports were circulated that the suspect had already been released, but the prosecutor says that is not true. He is still questioned. For the moment it is not sure if he is effectively involved in the attacks.

The Belgian prosecutor announced this afternoon that a third suicide bomber had been formally identified by the French experts, without identifying . According to the Washington Post, citing " official sources on condition of anonymity ," it would be a Bilal H., a Belgian resident who fought in Syria. 

The third brother, Ibrahim Abdeslam, was killed during the attacks in Paris, after he blew himself up. The federal prosecutor's office confirms that he is deceased. The couple hired a car which was involved in the bloody series of bombings in Paris. In the car was found a parking ticket from Jean, which was dated on 10 November. This our editors learned from a reliable source.

All three men were residing in the town square of Molenbeek , just opposite the town hall , "said our reporter Dominique Demoulin in RTLinfo 19h.

 On the territory of Brussels today new house searches were conducted within the framework of the investigation into the Belgian link with the attacks in Paris. Earlier in Belgium seven people were arrested in the by Brussels opened investigation into the attacks in the capital.

The Syrian passport found near the body of one of the suicide bombers in Paris on Friday night was in the name of alMohammad Ahmad, 25, and was introduced by an asylum seeker who arrived in Greece before taking the Balkan route, Athens said on Sunday.

The Serbian daily Blic had earlier published a photograph showing "a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad alMohammad (which) had conducted the entire Balkan route".

In a statement, the Serbian interior minister said the same passport was then recorded in Presevo (border between Macedonia and Serbia), where the holder had formally requested asylum. "It was established that these data correspond to those of a person identified October 3 in Greece. Source

Exclusive: The names and tickets of the suicide bombers that passed through Greece #ParisAttacks https://t.co/hxGWrrzUCq pic.twitter.com/9qIsVttcN6

— protothema.gr (@protothema) November 15, 2015

"The Belgian link"

The fact that" almost every time there is a link with Molenbeek is according to Prime Minister Charles Michel a" gigantic problem ". 

Minister of Interior and Security Jan Jambon has already made ​​it clear that "we don't have the situation under control in Molenbeek," and that he plans to to clean up "Molenbeek" ."We are at war with IS," he said. French media meanwhile are very keen for our country. 

The French media speak according to VRT journalist Steven Decraene who follow everything in Paris, only about one thing: 'la piste Belge. "They call our country even 'The jihadi capital of Europe'.


The first assailant whose identity was formally unveiled is French 29 years, Ismail Omar Mostefai , who participated in the bloody hostage-taking of Bataclan . Born in Courcouronnes (Essonne) , he was known for his Islamist radicalization , but had " never been involved " in a terrorist case , according to the Paris prosecutor Francois Molins . He frequented the mosque in Lucé , near Chartres ( Eure-et-Loir ) , a source close to the investigation said . On Sunday, the president of the mosque, Abdullah Benali , assured investigators that "he did not know Mostefai" . Investigators are trying to confirm that he has stayed in Syria in 2014, according to police sources .

Belgian federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon has previously described Brussels as a weak link in the fight against terror. Speaking at a debate last week, he said: “The thing that keeps me awake at night is the guy behind his computer, looking for messages from IS and other hate preachers.”

Jambon also reportedly warned of the growing use by terror networks of the PlayStation 4 gaming console, which allows terrorists to communicate with each other and is difficult for the authorities to monitor. “PlayStation 4 is even more difficult to keep track of than WhatsApp,” he said.

The gaming console also was implicated in ISIL’s plans back in June, when an Austrian teen was arrested for downloading bomb plans to his PS4.

 

Belgian Fighters in Syria and Iraq ~ October 2015 http://t.co/pKk12YUbVI by @p_vanostaeyen

— Pieter Van Ostaeyen (@p_vanostaeyen) October 11, 2015