Armed group fired on police
Police were attempting to serve a search warrant on persons in a residential building near a train station when they were fired upon. The police responded and killed two, both said to have been part of an Islamist group of suspected terrorists.
No police were killed or wounded and no civilians were hurt. The man taken into custody was wounded. The firefight took place in a residential building near the top floor.
“These were extremely well-armed men,” Magistrate Eric Van der Sypt told media. Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, he said terrorists fired on police with automatic weapons. Van der Sypt said the group was expected to launch a terrorist attack within days or even hours
There are also reports the group police fought with were getting orders from ISIS and Van der Sypt said police believe they were going to “carry out major terrorists attacks in Belgium imminently.”
Belgium police hunt extremists
On Thursday, police were serving 10 search warrants in total on suspected Islamist fighters in Brussels, Verviers and Vilvoorde, Van der Sypt said. No further shootouts have been reported. The coordinated actions of the police are related, Van der Sypt said, to extremists returning to the country from fighting in Syria.
He also said a man Belgium police arrested days ago for illegal trade in weapons may have a connection to Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four persons at a Jewish market in Paris last week and was connected to the brothers who attacked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The man met with Coulibaly but claims it was only because “he wanted to buy a car from the wife of Coulibaly.” Police say he sold Coulibaly weapons.
The police in Belgium are expected to make more arrests in relation to their ongoing operations against suspected extremists.
