Traditional fireworks displays in Brussels, Belgium have been cancelled this New Year's Eve due to terrorism concerns involving a possible attack by al-Qaida sympathizers wanting to free a Tunisian-born al-Qaida member, Nizar Trabelsi, 37, from jail.
As a result, a popular downtown market will close at 6:00 p.m. instead of staying open all night as it did in previous years, and the skating rink next door will close at 8:00 p.m.
Fourteen people were detained last week in a plot to free Trabelsi which involved the use of explosives and other weapons. Trabelsi was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 10 years in jail for
plotting to drive a car bomb into the cafeteria of a Belgian air force base housing about 100 U.S. military personnel.
He admitted at his trial that he met Osama bin Laden at al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and asked to be put on a list of "martyrs" willing to be suicide bombers.
Guy Verhofstadt, the Prime Minister of Belgium, also
warned of other possible targets in Belgium; security has been stepped up at the airport and in subway stations as well.
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