Brussels shooting suspect who killed two Swedish football fans sent pro-Palestinian messages
BRUSSELS – Belgium is no longer ruling out a link between the shooting of two Swedish football fans in Brussels on Monday night and the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to the country’s public broadcaster.
The federal prosecutor had said on Monday there was no evidence the attacker was linked to the war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
On Tuesday, it said it was no longer excluding the possibility, after it emerged the suspected gunman had sent numerous messages in support of the Palestinian people on social media, RTBF reported.
Brussels was in turmoil on Tuesday after the suspected gunman who shot dead two Swedes and injured a taxi driver on Monday night was shot and killed by police.
Belgian authorities, who on Monday night raised the terror threat warning in Brussels to four, its highest level, urged locals to remain vigilant, as schools and universities closed for the day, while many offices, including the European Commission, asked employees to work from home.
Prime minister Alexander De Croo, who called the shooting a “cowardly attack” and “a harrowing act of terrorism” has been holding round-the-clock meetings with his cabinet and security officials.
The shootings are described as the country’s worst terrorist incident since the March 2016 Brussels bombings that killed 32 people. However, questions are already being asked about how the Belgian security services failed to act despite the suspect being flagged as radicalised months earlier.
The suspect has been identified as Abdeslam Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian, who appears to have acted alone. Bystanders watching from a window filmed him last night as he assembled his rifle on the pavement on the Boulevard d’Ypres next to the canal. Although there was little foot traffic, he was in full view, wearing a fluorescent orange raincoat.
He shot at a black Mercedes Vito taxi that was heading for the Belgium-Sweden Euro 2024 qualifying match playing at the nearby King Baudouin national stadium, before shouting “Allah Akbar” (God is great), hopping on a scooter and fleeing. The two Swedish fans in the car died and the taxi driver was injured.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Lassoued uploaded a video of himself under the name of Slayem Slouma, saying in Arabic that he was a member of Islamic State, and boasting of having murdered infidels to “avenge the Muslims and that we live and die for our religion”. Before the attack, he had posted a message on Facebook referring to the murder in the US of a Palestinian boy by his 71-year-old landlord. Amid tension over Gaza, the alleged gunman wrote on Facebook that if the boy was Christian “it would have been called terrorism and not a brutal crime”.
The shooting prompted a massive manhunt, and police were eventually alerted on Tuesday morning when Mr Lassoued was seen at the Al Khaima café in Schaerbeek. They surrounded the café and shot him in the throat. He died about an hour later on the way to the hospital.
Justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne admitted that Mr Lassoued had been known to the police service since July 2016, but was not on the list of potentially dangerous individuals being followed up by the security services. At the time, the concerns were about individuals heading to Iraq to join jihadist groups.
“There were dozens of reports per day of that kind,” he said. ‘”The information was then investigated and nothing else could be done with it”.
Mr Lassoued was known to the police for, among other things, people-smuggling, and had applied for asylum in November 2019 but was rejected. By the time he was ordered to leave in 2021, the authorities had lost track of him.
There is no clear indication yet why Mr Lassoued targeted Swedes, but Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday morning that he had occasionally stayed in Sweden. Mr Kristersson said Sweden “has in modern times never been under as big a threat as now”, expressing his sadness and adding: “Every indication is that this is a terror attack, targeting Sweden and Swedish citizens, just because they are Swedes.”
Brussels is now trying to return to normal. Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden has attempted to reassure the public, insisting that soldiers would not be brought into the city, as they were in 2015 and 2016, while the right-wing MR party has urged the government to mobilise the army around key sites.
However, security is being tightened around embassies, government buildings and Ikea, the Swedish furniture store, which has eight branches in Belgium. A three-day state visit by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is being rearranged, with outdoor events, like a trip to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
