Brussels: jihadists ‘planned attack’ on nuclear plant

Suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Brussels were reportedly originally considering an attack on a nuclear site.

Brussels bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui.

Suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Brussels were reportedly originally considering an attack on a Belgian nuclear site, but arrests last week may have forced them to switch to targets in the nation’s capital.

As Belgian police investigated whether brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui had been involved­ in video surveillance of a nuclear power plant official, police and military services executed a series of raids yesterday across Belgium and France, thwarting an advanced terror plot in Paris.

Belgian prosecutors last night named as a new suspect 28-year-old Syrian Naim al-Hamed.

As the manhunt continued for the mystery would-be bomber at Brussel’s Zaventem airport and a suspected accomplice to the Maelbeek metro bombing, two Belgian ministers offered their resignations following further intellige­nce service failings that resulted in last Tuesday’s attacks, which killed 31 and wound­ed 300 people, 61 of them critically.

Referring to a December incid­ent in which militants cover­t­ly filmed the home of an unidentified senior official in the nuclear industry, DH newspaper quoted a police source as saying the El Bakraouis had filmed the daily routine of the head of Bel­gium’s nuclear research­ and devel­opment program.

In a series of blunders, Bel­gium had ignored Turkish inform­ation that airport bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui was an Islam­ic State terrorist, when he was twice deported from Turkey last year.

The Belgians had also told Turkey the other airport bomber and suspected Paris bombmaker, Najim Laachraoui, was “clean” when detained by the Turks more than two years ago.

It also emerged that local police were tipped off last December by a North African informant that Salah Abdeslam, the 10th man from the November 13 Paris attacks­, was staying with the same family in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek who were still harbouring him when he was arrested on March 18, but that information was not passed on to the anti-­terrorism unit. The police officer who drafted the note only realised the information hadn’t been sent on when Abdeslam was arrested.

After his arrest, Abdeslam had only been briefly interrogated and had not been quizzed about future planning of attacks despite the discovery of weapons and a detonator in the Forest safe house he had escaped from days earlier. “They had not thought it was possible that something might happen on Tuesday morning,” ­Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary said.

Police fear that at least two people directly linked to the Brussels bombings are at large and that other cells of terrorists are poised to unleash further terror.

The man in white coat and hat seen walking next to the airport bombers and a man with a large bag seen talking to metro bomber Khalid El Bakraoui at Maelbeek station now top Europe’s most wanted list. Another accomplice and childhood friend of Abdeslam, Mohammed Abrini, is also the target­ of a manhunt.

It is believed the Brussels bombers had planned their attacks during the busiest time of the Easter break, on Easter Monday, but brought forward plans after the arrest of Abdeslam. Police believe­ they would have struck with bomb and assault ­rifles.

Belgian police staged midnight raids in Schaerbeek yesterday, ­including at the house Abdeslam seems to have stayed in for much of his four months on the run.

They said six people were detained. Three of them were in the ­centre of Brussels, so close to the federal prosecutors office “they were outside our door’’, a government spokesman said. Two others were arrested in Jette and one in Schaerbeek. And public broadcaster RTBF reported the arrest of a seventh man in the Forest borough of Brussels early yesterday.

Across the border in France, ­security forces believe they have averted a significant terrorist ­attack in an advanced stage of planning following a raid on Argen­teuil in northern Paris.

Interior Minister Bernard ­Cazeneuve said a French malehad been arrested. He said the man was involved in an advanced terror plot but he wasn’t linked to the Belgium ­attacks. Read Kriket, 34, was linked last night to the ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

Police sources said Kriket had been found guilty in absentia in Brussels last July of being part of a network recruiting jihadists to Syria and sentenced to 10 years’ jail. Investigations showed Kriket played a key role in financing the network with money from robber­ies and stolen goods.

Among those who went to Syria through the network were Abaaoud and another Paris attack­er, Chakib Akrouh. Abaa­oud was among 28 convicted in the Belgian trial and was sentenced to 20 years in absentia.

Distraught families seeking ­information about missing ­persons have been told the victims won’t be identified for weeks.

Among those missing from the airport are American couple Justin and Stephanie Shults and American siblings Alex­ander and Sascha Pinczowski.

Briton David Dixon, 53, a computer programmer living in Brussels, has been confirmed dead.

Belgian legal student ­Leopold Hecht, 20, Belgian Sabrina Fazal, and Indian technol­ogy worker Rag­havendra Ganeshan were all feared to have been on the middle carriage of the metro train and have been ­reported missing.

Additional reporting: AFP