Belgium Launches Terror Probe After Knife Attack Soldiers shot attacker, who later died of his wounds By Julian E. Barnes
https://www.wsj.com/articles/belgian-officials-open-terror-probe-after-knife-attack-1503698642
BRUSSELS—Belgian officials opened a terror investigation Friday after a man attacked soldiers in central Brussels with a knife shouting “Allahu akbar,” before being shot dead.
Authorities said Saturday the man was carrying two copies of the Quran and a replica firearm when he approached three soldiers on patrol from behind wielding a knife.
The soldiers shot the man, who died later of the wounds, prosecutors said. Two of the soldiers were lightly wounded. Police searched the man’s home overnight.
Belgium’s Crisis Center, which coordinates the federal terror response, said late Friday that the attack was being treated as a terrorist incident and the investigation would be taken over by federal prosecutors.
Belgian officials said that while the assailant was known to authorities for an alleged assault in February he had no previously known terrorist ties. The man wasn’t identified, but federal prosecutors said he was born in 1987 and was a Belgian national of Somali origin. He moved to Belgium in 2004 and became a citizen in 2015.
Investigators are trying to learn if the man had connections to terror groups that went undetected by authorities.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said in a tweet Friday that security forces would remain attentive. Offering support for the military, he said he was following the situation closely with the Crisis Center.
Since the March 2016 terrorist attacks in Brussels there have been a number of knife attacks on police in Belgium. Some, like an attack on a police officer in Charleroi, Belgium, have been treated as a terrorist attack, while others haven’t.
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