2016 Brussels bombings


On the morning of 22 March 2016, three coordinated suicide bombings occurred in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station in central Brussels. Thirty-two civilians and three perpetrators were killed, and more than 300 people were injured. Another bomb was found during a search of the airport. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The perpetrators belonged to a terrorist cell which had been involved in the November 2015 Paris attacks. The Brussels bombings happened shortly after a series of police raids targeting the group. The bombings were the deadliest act of terrorism in Belgium's history. The Belgian government declared three days of national mourning.

Background

Belgium was a participant in the military intervention against ISIL, during the Iraqi Civil War. On 5 October 2014, a Belgian F-16 dropped its first bomb on an ISIL target, east of Baghdad. On 12 November 2015, Iraq warned members of the coalition that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL, had ordered retaliatory attacks on countries involved in the coalition against ISIL.
Belgium had more nationals fighting for jihadist forces as a proportion of its population than any other Western European country, with an estimated 440 Belgians having left for Syria and Iraq as of January 2015. The Guardian cited estimates suggesting that Belgium had supplied the highest per capita number of fighters to Syria of any European nation, with 350 to 550 fighters, out of a total population of 11 million that includes fewer than 500,000 Muslims. Exaggerated reporting claimed Belgium's weak security apparatus and competing intelligence agencies made it a hub of jihadist-recruiting and terrorist activity. In fact, Belgium faces the same problems as other European countries with regards to jihadist terrorism. According to Kenneth Lasoen, security expert at Ghent University, the attacks happened more as a result of policy failure rather than intelligence failure.

Terrorist cells in Brussels

Before the bombings, several Islamist terrorist attacks had originated from Belgium, and a number of counter-terrorist operations had been carried out there. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of wiretapping and surveillance operations directed at suspected terrorists by Belgian intelligence almost doubled. In May 2014, a gunman with ties to the Syrian Civil War attacked the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, killing four people. In January 2015, anti-terrorist operations against a group thought to be planning a second Charlie Hebdo shooting had included raids in Brussels and Zaventem. The operation resulted in the deaths of two suspects. In August 2015, a suspected terrorist shot and stabbed passengers aboard a high-speed train on its way from Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels, before he was subdued by passengers.
The perpetrators involved in the November 2015 attacks in Paris were based in Molenbeek, and Brussels was locked down for five days to allow the police to search for suspects with the military standing guard. On 18 March 2016, 4 days before the bombings, Salah Abdeslam, a suspected accomplice in those attacks, was captured after two anti-terrorist raids in Molenbeek that killed another suspect and injured two others. At least one other suspect remains at large. During interrogation, Abdeslam was presented with photographs of the Bakraoui siblings, who would later be suspected of committing the attacks in Brussels three days later. Belgian investigators believe that Abdeslam's arrest may have hastened the Brussels bombings. According to the Belgian Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, who spoke after the bombings, authorities knew of preparations for an extremist act in Europe, but they underestimated the scale of the attack.

Attacks

There were three coordinated attacks: two nail bombings at Brussels Airport, and one bombing at Maalbeek metro station.

Brussels Airport

Two suicide bombers, carrying explosives in large suitcases, attacked a departure hall at Brussels Airport in Zaventem. The first explosion occurred at 07:58 in check-in row 11; the second explosion occurred about nine seconds later in check-in row 2. The suicide bombers were visible in CCTV footage. Some witnesses said that before the first explosion occurred, shots were fired and there were yells in Arabic. However, authorities have stated afterwards that no shots were fired.
A third suicide bomber was prevented from detonating his own bomb by the force of a previous explosion. The third bomb was found in a search of the airport and was later destroyed by a controlled explosion. Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed that the suicide bombers had detonated nail bombs.

Maalbeek metro station

Another explosion took place just over an hour later in the middle carriage of a three-carriage train at Maalbeek metro station, located near the European Commission headquarters in the centre of Brussels, from Brussels Airport. The explosion occurred at 09:11 CET.
The train was travelling on line 5 towards the city centre, and was pulling out of Maalbeek station when the bomb exploded. The driver immediately stopped the train and helped to evacuate the passengers. The Brussels Metro was subsequently shut down at 09:27.

Victims

In the bombings, 35 people, including three suicide bombers, were killed and over 300 others were injured, 62 critically. Including the attackers, seventeen bodies were recovered at Brussels Airport and fourteen at the metro station. Four people later died of their wounds in hospital. Eighty-one others were injured at the airport, while the rest were injured at the metro station. The bombings were the deadliest act of terrorism in Belgium's history.
Fourteen of the deceased were Belgian nationals, four were Americans, three from the Netherlands, two from Sweden and the remaining nine hailed from a different nation. Among the fatalities at Zaventem was André Adam, former Belgian Permanent Representative to the United Nations who later served as Ambassador to the United States.

Suspects

Profiles

A total of five attackers were involved, with three of them dying in suicide bombings and the remaining two arrested in the weeks after. All had involvement in the planning and organization of the November 2015 Paris attacks. They were identified and named as:
In security camera video of Brussels Airport, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, Laachraoui, and Abrini were seen pushing suitcases believed to have contained the bombs that exploded in the departure hall. A taxi driver who drove them to the airport said he tried to help the men with their luggage but they ordered him away. Initial reports elaborated El Bakraoui and Laachraoui each apparently wearing a glove which may have concealed detonators to the explosives. This was later proven to be untrue, with both being barehanded.

Investigation

Within 90 minutes of the airport attack, the area around an apartment in Schaerbeek, a northern district of Brussels, was cordoned off by police. The authorities received a tip-off from a taxi driver once they released photos of the suspects several hours after the attacks. Inside the home, they discovered a nail bomb, of acetone peroxide, of acetone, nearly of hydrogen peroxide, other ingredients for explosives, and an ISIL flag. At least one resident reported unusual smells to the police, resulting in Agent de Quartier policeman Philippe Swinnen visiting the building twice in three months, but not entering.
Authorities also found a laptop belonging to Ibrahim El Bakraoui, inside a waste container near the house. The laptop had a suicide note stored on it, in which Ibrahim stated that he was "stressed out", felt unsafe, and was "afraid of ever-lasting eternity". It also contained images of the home and the office of the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, among information on multiple other locations in Brussels.
Numerous related arrests followed the bombings. As of 26 March, twelve men had been arrested in connection with the bombings. The FBI's Next Gen Identification System facial recognition software helped facilitate the identification of the "man with the hat" on CCTV footage as Mohamed Abrini. On 3 January 2018, a hard disk containing victims' autopsy reports was stolen from a medical examiner's office in the Portalis court building in Brussels. A 27-year-old male suspect was arrested.

Aftermath

Raids and searches were made across Belgium, while security was heightened in a number of countries as a result of the attacks. Al-Hayat Media Center published a nashid in French named «Ma vengeance» where it is praised the Brussels bombing and both Paris attacks.

Belgium

Authorities temporarily halted air traffic to the airport and evacuated the terminal buildings. The airport was to be closed to passenger traffic and reopening date postponed several times with a projected reopening date of 29 March. The Berlaymont building, which is near Maalbeek station and is the headquarters of the European Commission, was placed in lockdown. Controlled explosions were carried out on suspicious objects around Maalbeek station.
All public transport in the capital was shut down as a result of the attacks. Brussels-North, Brussels-Central, and Brussels-South stations were evacuated and closed, and Eurostar journeys to Brussels Midi station were cancelled. All trains from Paris to Brussels were also cancelled. Taxis in Brussels transported passengers free-of-charge for the duration of the lockdown. Paris Nord railway station, with services to Brussels, was also temporarily closed.
The National Security Council raised the terror alert level in the country to the highest level following the attacks. The government warned that some perpetrators might still be at large and urged citizens to reach friends and family using social media to avoid congesting the telephone networks. The threat level was lowered again on 24 March, and the government expanded the military protection of potential targets, that had been in place since January 2015, to include more soft targets and public places.
The country's two nuclear power plants – Tihange and Doel – were partially evacuated as a precaution.
Temporary border checks were implemented by Belgian and French authorities at some major crossings on the France-Belgium border.
The federal government announced three days of national mourning, lasting from Tuesday until Thursday, and flags were flown at half-mast on public buildings. They also held a one-minute silence at noon local time on 23 March, which ended with spontaneous applause and chants of "Vive la Belgique" in Place de la Bourse.
Also on 23 March, Belgian Muslim groups, such as the League of Imams in Belgium and Executive of the Muslims in Belgium, publicly condemned the bombings and expressed their condolences to the victims and their families.
The airport was closed on 22 March, with reopening postponed several times. On 29 March, an operational test was performed. The official reopening date was scheduled to be announced on 30 March. A post-reopening target of 800–1,000 passengers per hour was projected, compared to pre-bombing traffic of 5,000 passengers per hour. The delay in the reopening was attributed to extensive damage to the building's infrastructure. A temporary terminal was planned for use after the reopening. When the airport reopened, only Brussels Airlines would serve the airport, but other airlines would be allowed to return later.
On 29 March, it was revealed that Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui were released from prison due to a law introduced in 1888 known as Lejeune, which allows inmates to be released after serving a third of their sentence. Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon stated that the governing parties had agreed to update the law in 2014. The Lejeune law first came under scrutiny after serial killer and child molester Marc Dutroux was released from prison in 1992.
Airport businesses were affected. Hotel closures included the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel and Four Points by Sheraton Brussels. Cargo flights resumed on 23 March. Car rental offices were also closed.
Following memorials to the victims, disturbances broke out, resulting in riot police using water cannons to disperse violent right-wing protesters against ISIL.
On 30 March, plans to reopen the airport were cancelled again due to a strike by airport police over a dispute over inadequate security. The dispute was resolved, and the airport was later scheduled to be reopened on 3 April. On that day, a Brussels Airlines flight left for Faro and a flight to Athens and Turin was scheduled for the same day. Upon reopening, only passengers were allowed to enter a temporary departure hall and security checkpoints were implemented at the roadway to the airport. Only car and taxi traffic were allowed to enter but public transit remained suspended. Hotel business revenue in Brussels had been cut in half since the airport closure.
On 1 April, religious leaders in Brussels gathered together for a memorial to the victims of the bombings. They expressed their desire to spread a religious message of unity throughout Belgium, and to combat extremism.
On 25 April, the Maalbeek metro station reopened with heightened security. On 1 May, the departure hall of Brussels Airport, which had sustained the most damage during the bombings, partially reopened with the airport on high alert.
The mayor of Molenbeek district, Francoise Schepmans, responded by closing some mosques for "incendiary language" It was also determined that of 1,600 nonprofit organisations registered in the district, 102 had links to criminal activities, 51 of which to religious radicalism or terrorism.

Other countries

Soon after news of the attacks broke, security was increased, particularly at airports, railway stations and other transport hubs, in China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Also, Portugal evacuated the check-in section for 20 minutes due to a suspicious abandoned bag. In addition, Israel stopped flights from Europe for the rest of the day; additional police were deployed to the Belgian border with the Netherlands; the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the Belgian authorities were advising against non-essential travel to Brussels; and officials at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels warned of the possibility of more attacks, recommending "sheltering in place and avoiding all public transportation".
Exactly a year after these terrorist attacks, the 2017 Westminster attack occurred. It was a terror incident in London where five people were killed, including a police officer and the attacker, and dozens were injured.

Reactions

In a televised address to the nation on 22 March, King Philippe expressed his and Queen Mathilde's sorrow at the events. He offered their full support to members of the emergency and security services.
Hours after the attack the French-language hashtag #JeSuisBruxelles and images of the Belgian comic character Tintin crying trended on social media sites. Also, hashtags such as #ikwilhelpen and #PorteOuverte were used by Brussels residents who wanted to offer shelter and assistance for people who might need help.
Facebook activated its Safety Check feature following the attacks.
Following the bombings, several structures around the world were illuminated in the colours of the Belgian flag, including the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square, the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, the Trevi Fountain in Rome, and One World Trade Center in New York City, while the spire of the Empire State Building went dark. The Toronto Sign was lit up in the colours of the Belgian flag on the night of the attacks.
Governments, media outlets, and social media users received criticism in some media and academic analysis for their disproportionate emphasis placed on the attacks in Brussels over similar attacks in other countries, particularly in Turkey, which occurred days before. Similarly, reactions to the November 2015 Paris attacks were viewed as disproportionate in comparison to those of earlier bombings in Beirut. According to Akin Unver, a professor of international affairs at Istanbul's Kadir Has University, being "selective" about terrorism is counterproductive to the global counterterrorism efforts.

Parliamentary inquest

On 12 April 2016 the Belgian Federal Parliament voted to establish a parliamentary commission to investigate the circumstances of the attacks and what had gone wrong so they could not have been prevented. The Commission started work on 14 April 2016 and published four reports on three aspects of the disaster: the emergency response, the security architecture, and countering radicalism. The Commission interdicted the fragmentation of the Belgian security apparatus, which resulted in a lack of coordination, faulty communications, missing unity of command, insufficient integration and a multitude of rules and procedures across the institutions involved that further exacerbated the challenges of coping with the terror threat. The Commission also pointed to the structural under-funding of the security services, noting how a lack of resources and manpower left the police and intelligence services unable to process all the information about the great number of Belgian foreign fighters. The Commission termed this information overload with the neologism "infobesitas". The report also addressed a number of severe criticisms leveled at Belgium in the French parliamentary inquest into the November 2015 Paris attacks.

Memorialisation

In the aftermath of the attacks, the population of Brussels reacted by creating spontaneous memorials as a societal reaction to what was perceived as a collective tragedy. In the hours following the attack, people started gathering at the city center near the former stock exchange. Mourners wrote chalk messages on the pavement and buildings surrounding the square. Numerous messages and mementos, usually every-day objects such as mugs or hats, were left at the Bourse memorial. According to Ana Milosevic, a researcher at KU Leuven, societal tensions and the pressure for the answers about the causes and consequences of the attacks, were salient in the first days and weeks after the event. During the two months of the existence, the Bourse memorial was used as a site of contestation and negotiation of the meanings associated with the terrorist attacks.
The Archives of City of Brussels were tasked by the mayor Yvan Mayeur and the city council to collect and document the societal reactions to the attacks. Over two months, the team of the archives documented the process of memorialization, also collecting some of the memorabilia left by the mourners.
The first memorialization initiative included the creation of a semi-permanent monument by the Moroccan community of Molenbeek – the part of the city from which several perpetrators of the Paris and Brussels attacks originated. Called "The Flame of Hope", the monument was placed at the main square of the municipality, however it did not attract significant societal or media attention.
Following a public competition, a monument to the victims was unveiled on the first anniversary of the attacks on the pedestrianised section of rue de la Loi, between Schuman and the parc du Cinquantenaire. The monument, by Jean-Henri Compere, is called "Wounded But Still Standing in Front of the Inconceivable" and is constructed from two 20-metre long horizontal surfaces rising skywards.
The Brussels-Capital Region also memorialised the attacks with a land-art work by Bas Smets, who planted 32 birches in the Sonian Forest as "a place of silence and meditation." The birches are connected by a circular structure and separated from the rest of the forest by a small round canal.
A smaller memorial was also raised by the municipality of Etterbeek in the Jardin Felix Hap.
In the Maelbeek metro station, a commemorative mural was created by Benoît van Innis, who previously designed the metro station, and a list of the sixteen victimes was unveiled at the third commemorative anniversary next to the mural.