Islamist terrorism has once again caused bloodshed in Brussels. At 7:15 p.m., Monday October 16, 2023, an attacker drove onto a sidewalk on a scooter near the city center of Brussels, near Place Sainctelette. He entered the lobby of a building and killed two Swedes in cold blood with an automatic weapon. A third person, also of Swedish nationality, was seriously injured.

This attack shook the Belgian capital, which endured another night of terror. After a hunt lasting several hours, the suspect, Abdesalem L., a 45-year-old Tunisian in an irregular situation who claims to be a member of the Islamic State, was shot dead by the police during his arrest early in the morning of this Tuesday. This bloody evening tragically echoes previous terrorist attacks that have hit Brussels in recent years.

In the spring of 2014, Belgium was shocked by a quadruple “terrorist” assassination, considered to be the first attack committed in Europe by a fighter returning from Syria. According to investigators, the drama lasted precisely 82 seconds.

CCTV cameras show a man, like a shadow, entering the hall of the Jewish Museum of Belgium. This is Mehdi Nemmouche, a 34-year-old French jihadist. Using a revolver and a Kalashnikov, the assailant fired several times. In doing so, he killed a couple of Israeli tourists and a French volunteer. He also injured the museum receptionist, who died of his injuries two weeks after the attack.

With this tragedy, the scourge of anti-Semitism violently resurfaces in the heart of Europe. It takes place only two years after the deadly attacks perpetrated by Mohamed Merah. This Franco-Algerian had killed four Jews, including three children in front of a school, as well as three soldiers in the southwest of France in 2012. Thus, a few hours after the attack on the Museum, Joëlle Milquet, the Minister of Interior at the time, had decided to strengthen the security of synagogues, schools and Jewish cultural centers to level 4, the highest.

Six days later, Mehdi Nemmouche was arrested on a bus at the Marseille bus station following a customs check. The police found in the vehicle the weapons used in the attack and a laptop, from which videos were unearthed in which a faceless voice claimed responsibility for the assassinations. In 2019, Mehdi Nemmouche was sentenced to life in prison.

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That Tuesday, the ground in Brussels began to shake. In barely an hour, the capital faced three powerful explosions which killed 32 people and three suicide bombers. Hundreds of injuries have also been reported.

As the clocks at Zaventem airport were about to strike 8 o’clock, two explosions occurred in the main hall. Once the explosions pass, chaos. A large crowd flees the international airport, abandoning their luggage. Parts of the ceiling collapse as smoke billows from the large building.

An hour later, when the disaster plan had been triggered, a third explosion rang out in the Brussels metro, at Maelbeek station. In haste, the entire Brussels metropolitan network closes and an emergency number is set up.

The attacks, claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), come just four days after the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the November 13 commandos. The investigators quickly noted that it was the same cell which was at the origin of the deadly attacks in Paris.

In an extraordinary trial opened in December 2022 in the Belgian capital, a total of nine men appeared, including Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini – already sentenced to life in prison in 2022 in Paris for the November 13 attacks. In total, six defendants were found guilty of “assassinations in a terrorist context”, considered to be “co-perpetrators” of the acts.

This Wednesday, two police officers were attacked during a road check in Schaerbeek, a working-class town. The assailant, a Belgian named Hicham Diop, armed with a Swiss army knife, injured one of the agents in the neck and the other in the stomach. After the attack, the man tried to flee, but another patrol opened fire and intercepted him. He was shot in the leg.

Born in 1973, the attacker is believed to be a former Belgian soldier, known to the courts for his contacts with fighters who left for Syria without appearing in the files of the Belgian Agency for the Analysis of the Terrorist Threat, Ocam. He left the Flat Country army in 2009.

The day after the attack, he was placed under arrest warrant by the investigating judge and was charged with attempted assassination in a terrorist context and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. In April 2018, Hicham Diop was sentenced by the Brussels Court of Appeal to 15 years in prison. The aggravating circumstance of terrorism was not considered.

Shortly after 8 p.m., near the Grand-Place, soldiers on patrol were attacked by a man armed with a knife. At the time of the attack, the latter shouted “Allah Akbar” twice, according to the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. He “lightly” injured one of the soldiers before being killed in their response. The terrorist was also in possession of an imitation firearm and two Korans. The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack the next day.

The man, a 34-year-old Belgian of Somali origin, arrived in Belgium in 2004 and obtained nationality in 2015. “He was not known for acts of terrorism, but for acts of assault and battery. in February 2017,” added the federal prosecutor’s office.

It was 7:15 p.m. when a police patrol, stopped at a red light near Brussels-North station, was targeted by a man armed with a knife. Two police officers are taken to the emergency room. Hit in the throat, one of them, Thomas M., 29, died of his injuries. The attacker, Yassine M., was neutralized by the shots of an inspector from a patrol called for reinforcement. He was arrested and then transported to hospital to receive treatment. At the time of the attack, one of the police officers claimed to have heard him shout “Allah Akhbar”. The federal prosecutor’s office is therefore seized of the case and Yassine M. is charged with murder and attempted murder in a terrorist context.

Born in Belgium in 1990, the man was listed by Ocam. He was detained between 2013 and 2019 for common law crimes. In 2015, he was reported as radicalized and was transferred to a specialized wing of Ittre prison. He had also attacked a guard there.

Earlier on November 10, Yassine M. went to a police station in Evere, northeast of Brussels, where he lived. He had stated his intention to commit an attack against police officers. Under the supervision of a magistrate, he was taken with his own consent to a hospital to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. But no deprivation of liberty was imposed because Yassine M. did not meet the legal criteria for compulsory internment. The reason: he himself had asked to be psychologically monitored. The man was therefore released before committing his attack.