Five arrests in new Belgium anti-terror raids: Prosecutor

BRUSSELS — Belgian police arrested five more people in a new series of anti-terrorism raids Monday, prosecutors said, as the capital Brussels was locked down for a third day under a state of maximum alert. The arrests bring to 21 the total number of people detained since police launched a major security operation on Sunday night, with 16 people having been taken into custody earlier, they said. “Following the operation of last night, five more house searches were conducted in the Brussels region and two more in the Liege region. Five persons were arrested during these searches,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “A total of 21 persons were arrested since yesterday. They are currently questioned by the police.” Around 26,000 euros ($27,500) in cash was seized during one of the searches and other items seized by police are being examined, the statement said. Key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam is believed to remain on the run after officials said he was not among those arrested on Sunday night. An incident in which a BMW car rushed off when pulled over by police for a routine check near Liege on Sunday – which some Belgian media said involved Abdeslam – had “no link at all with the ongoing operation” and the vehicle had been identified, they added. Meanwhile, Brussels was locked down for a third day under maximum terror alert Monday, with schools and the metro closed after Belgian police raids failed to track down key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam. Belgian police on Sunday carried out 19 raids in Brussels and three in the industrial town of Charleroi, detaining 16 people but failing to find Salah Abdeslam, prosecutors said. “Salah Abdeslam was not caught during the raids,” federal prosecutor spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told reporters just after midnight, meaning Europe’s most wanted man remains at large. Abdeslam’s elder brother Brahim blew himself up outside a Paris bar in the November 13 attacks and the 26-year-old is suspected of playing a key role in the massacre. Another brother, Mohamed, on Sunday urged Salah to give himself up as only that way would his own family, and those of the victims, find an answer to the suffering he had help inflict. Interior Minister Jan Jambon told Belgian radio: “The operation is not finished. We will continue until we clean up this mess.” Asked about Salah Abdeslam, Jambon said he could not give operational details but pledged there would be no let up in the manhunt. “The actions will continue in the coming hours. Everybody knows there is a certain danger with him, so yes, he is an important target.” Armed police and troops patrolled the near-deserted streets of the tense capital all weekend after the government raised the terror alert to the highest level of four in the city. They were out in force again on Monday but people were trying to go about their daily lives as normally as possible in the circumstances. Traffic was relatively light in the centre of the city and many people opted to cycle to work. In the normally bustling historic Grande Place, a few bars and restaurants were open for business but it was hard going to get customers. Buses were running, if crowded and subject to delay as some drivers stayed at home due to the school closures, the Brussels transport authority said. The European Union and NATO both said they would bolster security and urged non-essential staff to work from home on Monday. The rest of the country, including Brussels airport, remains on security alert level three, meaning an attack is considered possible and the threat credible. Officials were due to review the situation again later Monday. French police meanwhile released a photo of the third of three men who blew themselves up outside France’s national stadium. The man in the picture passed through Greece with one of the other suicide bombers, carrying a Syrian passport in the name of Mohammad Al-Mahmod, a source close to the investigation said. — AFP