Black Belgian Tuesday

The consequences of terrorist attacks in Brussels: 32 dead, about 300 wounded and a country that gets used to a new reality

Soldiers and police officers search everyone who seems suspicious, Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2016

Two explosions at the airport, one in the metro are dozens of dead, hundreds of wounded, practically paralyzed city, in which the most important institutions and organizations of the European Union are located, the Supreme EU EU for Foreign Affairs Federic Moherorini, who was crying during a press briefing, the police and the military, stopping on the streets of the city to search for everyone in a row of brunettes and dark-skinned ones, crowds of people, rampant, rampant, rampant. Standing in line for inspection at the entrance to the metro station and stations, taxi drivers who lifted the price of travel for discouraged foreign tourists up to € 5 per km ... On March 22, it became for the Belgian capital the day of horror, sorrow, conscious parting with the old and the beginning of addiction to a new reality.

Who exploded

“Two terrorists undermined themselves at the airport Zartim, another, having arranged an explosion at the Malbek metro station-on the run”-these were the first news. Then the clarifications went: “All three suicide bombers were killed, these are the brothers Ibrahim and Khalid Bakravi and Naimi Lashravi. The fourth suspect - on the video at the airport, he is hiding in the headdress and with a beard, and the authorities are not known about his personality. All terrorists were born in Belgium and were Belgian citizens. ” And then the news that no one was surprising from anyone: “The Islamic State group took responsibility for the terrorist attack*.

On March 22, a laptop was found in the street urn in Scarbek: as it turned out, it belonged to 27-year-old Ibrahim Al Bakravi, sentenced in 2010 by 9 years in prison for the injury of a police officer during an armed robbery and released four years later. The computer found the “will” of the terrorist without specifying any names.

“All three suicide bombers died. All terrorists were born in Belgium and were Belgian citizens "

On March 23, the Moroccan Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested five days before in Brussels, suspected of organizing terrorist attacks in Paris last November, denies any connection with the Bakrowi brothers. But the press is unanimous: in Paris and Brussels, the same terrorist cell acted, and the arrest of Abdeslama forced the Bakrowi brothers, who initially thought the attack on the Belgian Dul and Tiange NPP, to act in a hurry.

Than exploded

The Federal Prosecutor of Belgium Frederick Van Leo reports: in the apartment of the dead Brakwie brothers in the Brussels suburb, Scarbek found 15 kg of triacetone of tripoxide (tatra) and ingredients for its production. Explosives were prepared at least two weeks. In the early morning of March 22, the brothers ordered a taxi pcap to immerse four Baul in it, but instead of a pickup, a sedan arrived-there was enough space in it only for three. Otherwise, there would be more victims at the airport.

Why they managed to blow up

The Belgian special services, apparently, received signals about the impending large-scale terrorist attacks, in mid-February, 140 special forces entered the protection of nuclear power plants and other strategic facilities, after the police became aware: someone installed a video camera in front of the house of the head of the Belgian nuclear program (his press does not name). The investigation led to the Bakrowi brothers, their arrest was a matter of several days, some commentators were convinced, but the terrorists managed to get ahead of the special services. Nevertheless, the authorities of Belgium fell under the fire of harsh criticism, including abroad. The Minister of Finance of France, Michel Sapen, stated in an interview with LCI that the Belgian authorities showed "lack of will, giving the opportunity, probably out of the best motives, to develop some communes on their own." Sapen's statement caused discontent in Brussels, he had to abandon his words and apologize to the Belgians.

Another scandal was provoked by an article in the online publication of the Daily Beast, the author of which quotes its source in the US intelligence services: “Our Belgian colleagues,“ like children ”, and“ shitty ”:“ They only moved now, and when we called them or met with them, they ... refused to believe what was happening. ” The answer from Belgium was not long in coming: the former judge and member of the police supervision committee, Walter de Samedt, published an article in the Le Vif newspaper, in which he noted that we were accustomed to "arrogant comments of Americans." Then he recalled the failures of the American colleagues themselves - "both in the war with drugs and in the war with terrorism." “If we are children, then the children (European) civilization, whose value is in observing the framework of human rights in order to avoid violations that our (American) colleagues took place,” said de Samedt.

The future is unknown

Belgium authorities refused to introduce a state of emergency, but even the already taken security measures caused an ambiguous reaction. “In addition to the fact that they reduce the throughput of transport units,” says the commentator of the RTBF television company, “huge queues for the entrance to airports and stations can become a new target of terrorists.” At the same time, RTBF refers to the decision of the French railway state company SNCF, which, after trying to the Amsterdam train attack, Paris nevertheless abandoned the inspection idea at the entrance to the stations.

Photo: AFP/East News

* “Islamic State” (ISIS, IG, Daish) - a terrorist group prohibited in the Russian Federation.