THE ISLAMIC STATE HAS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BRUSSELS ATTACKS
James McAuley, Michael Birnbaum and Brian Murphy
BRUSSELS — Three deadly terrorist blasts rocked the Belgian capital Tuesday, leaving more than 30 dead at the Brussels airport and a metro station and striking fear in the heart of the European Union just days after a manhunt captured a key suspect in last year’s Paris massacres.
The Islamic State asserted responsibility for the attacks, according to a statement posted on the Amaq Agency, a website believed close to the extremist group. The message said Belgian was targeted for its participation in the international coalition battling the Islamic State.
If the Islamic State link is confirmed, it would mark other deadly strike less than a week after a deadly suicide blast in Istanbul whose five victims including two people with dual American-Israel citizenship.
The apparently coordinated explosions in Brussels — including at least one by a suicide bomber at the airport — created a renewed sense of threat that spilled far beyond Brussels, as authorities boosted police patrols in cities such as Paris, London and Washington.
[LIVE updates on the death toll, attack scenes and reactions around the world]
The latest bloodshed — also leaving more than 180 people injured — also made clear that European capitals remain perilously vulnerable despite attempts to dismantle the militant network that perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in Paris in generations last November.
It also raised fears of further reprisal attacks for the arrest last week of the fugitive suspect whom authorities have linked to a Brussels-based cell accused of masterminding the Paris attacks.
At the same time, Europe has struggled with apparent spillover from the churning conflict in Syria. Thousands of European citizens have traveled there to fight in a war that has become a focal point for jihadists around the world. Some have returned radicalized to Europe.
Even before the purported claim of responsibility by the Islamic State, European leaders wasted no time in referencing other attacks by Islamist militants. “We are at war,” said French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
“We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war,” he added. Hours earlier, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said the city had come under “terrorist attacks.” His office said at least one of the airport blasts was carried out by a suicide bomber.
[Why is Brussels under attack?]
In Havana, at the end of a landmark trip, President Obama urged “the world to unite” to fight terrorism, and pledged to “do whatever is necessary” to aid the investigation in Belgiu
Belgian leaders warned that the Brussels perpetrators may still be at large, and Brussels was largely shut down.
Feeding fears that the danger has not subsided, Belgian media reported that security forces conducted raids around the capital, but then said that law enforcement agencies had asked them to stop reporting on the raids to avoid tipping off suspects.
The attacks started just before 8 a.m. Brussels time, when one blast ripped through the departure hall of the Brussels airport, followed shortly by another one near the other end of the terminal, where people had already started to run for cover.
The blasts collapsed ceilings in the departure hall, sent passengers fleeing and left pools of blood amid splintered signs and abandoned luggage.
On an outside walkway, people ran for cover: men swinging briefcases, travelers lugging backpacks, a woman cradling an infant.
Just over an hour later, another explosion tore open a metal subway car at the bustling Maelbeek metro station, where European Union diplomats, government employees and other international workers routinely crisscross on their way to work.
[At NATO headquarters, alter status raised just miles from attacks]
The station was clogged with smoke as panicked people streamed onto the streets and rescue workers raced toward the mayhem.
The attacks came just four days after French and Belgian leaders celebrated the capture of Salah Abdeslam, 26, believed to be the lone remaining at-large direct participant in the Paris attacks, who was discovered hiding in a Brussels apartment building in the Molenbeek neighborhood near the center of the city.
Last week’s sense of triumph turned quickly to outrage and grief Tuesday, as Belgian leaders said they were contending with the worst attack on their soil since World War II.
“What we had feared has happened,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. “This is a black moment for our country.”
Michel said that there were “scores” of dead, without offering specifics.
The mayor of Brussels, Yvan Mayeur, said the subway blast alone left at least 20 dead and more than 100 injured.
The Belgian Health Ministry said 11 people were killed and 81 wounded in the attack at the airport, Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper reported.
Among those injured at the airport were three Mormon missionaries from Utah, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement.
[D.C. Metro expands security patrols]
The fallout immediately spread beyond Belgium’s borders, displaying the increased worries and security cooperation since November’s Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that an additional 1,600 people were deployed in France and that security was boosted at border posts and major transportation hubs.
“Through the attacks in Brussels, all of Europe is hit,” French President François Hollande wrote on Twitter. On social media, an image soon appeared: A figure draped in the colors of the French flag embracing another tearful figure in the black, yellow and red of Belgium’s banner.
London and other cities, including New York and Washington, also put additional police on the streets. The FBI and other U.S. agencies opened channels with Belgian officials to assist in the investigation.
At the news conference in Jordan, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, choked back tears at a news conference after learning of the Brussels attacks.
[Here’s what we know about the attacks in Brussels]
Amateur video taken immediately after the airport attack showed streams of panicked passengers running out of the airport. Large clouds of smoke bellowed from the blown-out windows of a terminal building.
The airport was closed, as well as the major roadway leading to the airport. Flights were diverted to Liege Airport, about 50 miles east of Brussels Airport, radio reports said.
About 75 minutes after the blasts at the airport, another explosion ripped through the Maelbeek metro station, Belgian media reported. That station, near the heart of the European Union, serves a busy stretch of E.U. office buildings, embassies and international organizations. The explosion happened near the end of the morning rush hour, when many subway trains are packed with commuters.
“We saw a few people injured. We saw the glass front of the building had exploded, glass flying around,” said Daniela Schwarzer, head of the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, who was leaving Brussels after a weekend conference.
Amid the crisis, some basic Belgian utilities appeared to be under stress. Belgium’s official crisis center called on Brussels residents to avoid streaming video and music to avoid taxing the Internet. It asked people to communicate by text message or social network, rather than voice calls, so as not to overload phone lines.
“We are experiencing the darkest day in the history of our country since the Second World War,” said Bart de Wever, mayor of Antwerp and the leader of Belgium’s largest political party, the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang, the broadcaster VTM reported.
[Pentagon chief: U.S. working to account for civilians, service members after Brussels attacks]
Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism official who now directs The Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, said Belgium has faced a host of challenges — including open borders, the largest per capita number of foreign fighters who now might return, and shortcomings in street-level intelligence gathering.
“The number of investigations is extremely high, and that’s just the ones they know about it,” said Levitt. “There’s the issue now of getting up to speed with the current terrorism problem, which is overwhelming in terms of the numbers.”
Belgium also faces an ethnic and bureaucratic patchwork that could complicate security operations. Brussels is patrolled by six separate local police forces, plus a federal one; some of the forces speak French and others speak Dutch.
Birnbaum reported from Moscow, and Murphy from Washington. Daniela Deane and Karla Adam in London, Anthony Faiola in Berlin and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
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