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Belgium
A 13-year-old Belgian boy is said to have joined the ranks of the Islamic State earlier this year along with his 27-year-old brother. Authorities disclosed that the laptop of Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo was stolen from his official car on Aug. 18, but they claim it did not contain state secrets. After the Muslim Executive of Belgium was criticized by an Antwerp politician on Aug. 19 for not distancing itself from the Islamic State’s barbarism, the organization issued a statement saying that IS’ criminal acts have nothing to do with Islam, and “strongly condemn[ing] the activities of certain youngsters…
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Belgium
Authorities are investigating the possibility that two explosions in March that put a major power transformer in Hainault out of order may have been caused by sabotage, as reports emerged that sabotage caused a nuclear reactor in Doel to shut down. Four of eight Belgian reactors are out of operation through the end of this year, reducing Belgium’s energy supply by 25% and forcing the government to warn municipalities of power shortages this winter.
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Austria
Antisemitism on rise across Europe ‘in worst times since the Nazis’
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Belgium
A court remanded Mehdi Nemmouche, a French-Algerian jihadist suspected in the killing of four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels, to a month in custody after charging him with “murder in a terrorist context.” Authorities are continuing their investigation of the suspect, who spent over a year fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham in Syria.
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Belgium
Authorities have announced the arrest of a 25-year-old Syrian man who arrived at Charleroi Airport in Brussels with two false French passports and a USB stick with video of jihadist killings and propaganda. The man was arrested on Aug. 1 on suspicion of belonging to the Al Nusrah Front; his lawyer claimed the suspect was actually a journalist who had been held hostage by the terrorist group.
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Belgium
Of the 66 Belgians known to be in Libya, seven left on aboard a Greek ship, 10 told the Belgian Embassy they wanted to leave, and 50 dual nationals prefer to remain in the troubled country. Last month Luxembourg police working with Spanish counterterrorism authorities arrested Belgian national Abou Nouh a.k.a. Davide De Angelis, a former jihadist in Syria who served as a facilitator for an Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham recruiting network that funneled fighters to Syria and Mali.
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Belgium
Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman accused of killing four people in an attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels on May 24, has been extradited from France to Belgium. The French-Algerian suspect had fought in Syria and lived in Molenbeek before the attack. The mayor of Antwerp said that at least 4,000 to 5,000 people from the Schengen zone have fought in Syria and now pose a threat to Europe. He called for better coordination between European member states and within Belgian security agencies to address the threat.
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Belgium
A court ordered 46 members of Sharia4Belgium to face trial on terrorism charges, including the group’s leader, Fouad Belkacem, and 15 other top operatives. Only eight of the 46 are currently in Belgium; the other 38 are thought to have gone to Syria. The outlawed group Sharia4Belgium was reportedly dissolved in 2012 but authorities believe it has continued to operate, sending fighters to Syria.
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Analysis: Blowback from the Syrian jihad has begun
In well over a dozen countries, evidence has emerged that jihadists who trained or fought in Syria are engaging in terrorist activities in their home countries and elsewhere.
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Belgium
A gunman opened fire on visitors at a Jewish museum in Brussels, killing two women and a man, and seriously injuring a fourth victim, before fleeing in a car with another person. Twelve other people were hospitalized for shock following the incident. An election truck belonging to a nationalist politician was gutted in a suspected arson attack.
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Jaysh al-Mujahedeen
Syrian moderates try to rebuild opposition force
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Belgium
Belgium, Allies Try to Halt Flow of Young Islamist Fighters to Syria
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Belgium
Authorities confirmed that four young women left the cities of Antwerp and Sint Niklaas in March for Syria, ostensibly to provide humanitarian aid relief. One of the women has reportedly informed her family that she got married after arriving in Syria.
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Belgium
Belgium raised its terror alert level to “high” as a result of the planned visit of US President Barack Obama and visits by other dignitaries between March 20 and April 3 for the European Union’s summit on Africa. A Belgian security official said no threats have been perceived and that the heightened alert is “the normal response” to the forthcoming visits by foreign officials.
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Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham
British Jihadists Torture Syrian Rebel
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Belgium
Belgian Hercules Takes Dutch Weapons to Mali
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Al Nusrah Front
Jihadists construct the Atomium bomb: YouTube video threat to Belgium tourist attraction
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Japan
Nuclear Materials Report Shows Better Safekeeping
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Belgium
Terrorist threats were made against targets in Brussels and Antwerp, including Antwerp’s Central Station and the Atomium monument in Brussels, warning Muslims to avoid revelers on New Year’s Eve. The threats were reportedly issued on the Facebook account of a Vilvoorde member of the banned Sharia4Belgium organization who is thought to have died in Syria.
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Belgium
Belgium said it was “not favourable” to having Syrian chemical weapons destroyed on its soil, but that it would help to make an inventory of the weapons. In recent weeks, politicians and the Belgian royal family have received email death threats and bomb warnings that appear to come from Islamists. Two of the targeted politicians have previously been involved in efforts to stop jihadists from traveling to Syria.
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France
Anti-Semitism is on the rise, finds survey of European Jewish people
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Belgium
Prosecutors said Antwerp University was evacuated on Oct. 28 because of emails to faculty from a sender linked to a Muslim brotherhood who threatened to kill all unbelievers in Belgium. Last week a possibly related video surfaced, purportedly from Belgian jihadists in Syria. Suspected jihadist Jejoen Bontinck, who was recently arrested at his home in Antwerp after returning from Syria, remains in detention.
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Belgium
Authorities charged Jejoen Bontinck, a Belgian citizen and Muslim convert, for belonging to a terrorist group. Bontinck, who recently arrived in Belgium from Syria, is believed to have been recruited by the banned group Sharia4Belgium to fight with jihadists in Syria. His father, a former Belgian army officer, traveled twice to Syria to find him.
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Belgium
Six suspects have been arrested after rioting in the city of Houthalen in Limburg that injured a police officer. Police arrested notorious Somali pirate leader Mohammed Abdi Hassan a.k.a. Afweyne (“Loud Mouth”) at Brussels airport upon arrival in Belgium; he and a high-ranking official in the Somali government, which is accused of protecting him, have both been detained. Security has been heightened since the extradition of convicted terrorist Nizar Trabelsi to the US to face terror charges.
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Al Qaeda
Moroccan al-Qaeda suspect caught in Europe
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Belgium
Belgian police in Vilvoorde arrested Ismail Abdelatif Al Lal, a top financier for an al Qaeda-linked network based in Spain that sent Spanish and Moroccan jihadists to Syria. The head of the recruiting network was arrested on Sept. 16 in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, and eight other members were arrested in Ceuta in June.
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Belgium
Muslim activist Abou Jahjah announced his intention to return to Belgium after living in Lebanon for nearly 10 years. A leading Antwerp politician called for Jahjah to be arrested on his return, citing his links to Hezbollah and the fact that the UK has denied him entry.
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Belgium
Authorities in the Flemish cities of Antwerp and Vilvoorde discontinued welfare benefits for some 29 Belgian jihadists in Syria. The authorities had found that the jihadists were accessing their government benefits through banks in Turkey. In April the federal prosecutor’s office said it was aware that 33 persons from Antwerp and Vilvoorde had traveled to Syria for jihad; almost all were linked to the Islamist group Sharia4Belgium, whose leader, Fouad Belcakem, remains in custody.
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Al Qaeda
Worries Mount as Syria Lures West’s Muslims
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Belgium
French businessman ‘to pay all burqa fines’
