Families seek answers after Belgium terror raid
As a Belgian prosecutor charges five people, there are reports that the families of two men linked to the raid have been unable to reach their children amid fears they were killed.
Redwane Hajaoui (Abu Khalid Al Maghribi) and Tarik Jadaoun (Abu Hamza Belgiki) are believed to be the men killed in a police shootout on 15 January, according to Belgian newspaper Sudpresse, with the broadcaster RTL also reporting that Hajaoui was one of the men killed.
AFP reported that jihadist Twitter accounts has also said that the men had been killed.
Local media reports that the parents of the men are said to be extremely worried that it is their sons involved, as they have been unable to contact them.
A Belgian prosecutor announced on Friday that five further men had been charged with terror offences after the raids but did not confirm the identity of the men who had been killed.
The Islamist group raided by police yesterday were planning an attack on police stations, Belgian police say, after finding police uniforms, guns and explosives during a major counter-terrorism operation.
In the town of Verviers officers came under fire when trying to raid a bakery where it was storing its weapons. Two of the alleged gunmen were killed and a third man was arrested. The two deceased have not yet been formally identified.
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Kalashnikov selfies
In his profile picture on Facebook, Redwane Hajaoi is aiming a Kalashnikov in what appears to be a Middle Eastern setting.
Police found four such guns at the address they raided January 15th, which lead to two deaths and one serious injury.
In another photo he is posing in front of an Islamic State building thought to be a Sharia court in territory controlled by fighters aligned to the Islamic State militant group.
And in images posted from November, two men, including Hajaoi, are pictured outside a Shariah court in Syria. The men had recently been pictured together in images they uploaded onto Facebook from Aleppo.
But his Facebook profile indicates that prior to his radicalisation, Hajaoi was a very different person. He’s part of a Facebook group for a club night in Belgium and has ‘liked’ football clubs, rap music and Hollywood movies.
His Facebook page was suspended this afternoon, less than 24 hours after the raid.
Arrests across Europe
The mounting challenge for authorities in Europe from foreign fighters has come into sharp focus this week, as police scrambled in the wake of Paris, making arrests elsewhere in Belgium, France and Germany.
AFP reported that as many as 10 people from Verviers had gone to fight in Syria in recent months.
Hundreds of people from Belgium are thought to have gone to fight in Syria, the largest number in Europe on a per capita basis.
Belgian police state that the terror raid had no connection to the Paris attacks, with the French PM Valls saying “we don’t think there is a direct link” between the two events, adding: “The link that exists is the desire of terrorists to attack our values, our compatriots.”
The Belgian police today raised the country’s national threat level and said that more arrests are expected.