Belgian authorities on Friday arrested Mohamed Abrini, suspected of driving those involved in the Paris terror attacks and of being part of
the deadly bombing months later at Brussels airport.
Eric Van der Sypt, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor's office, said that Abrini was arrested along with Osama Krayem. Krayem may not be as well known, but he nonetheless may have been a critical figure in both the Paris and Brussels attacks
As to Abrini, the 31-year-old Belgian-Moroccan had been among Europe's most wanted and was considered "armed and dangerous."
His arrest means that Belgian authorities now have at least two people, along with Salah Abdeslam, who have been directly tied to the November 13 attacks in Paris.
"For French investigators, this can be very big," said CNN's Nic Robertson. "This gives you a much stronger position to be in to get to the truth ... to (track) other terrorists on the run down," Robertson said. "And also to understand precisely what happened in Paris."
But according to Peter Bergen, a leading terrorism expert and CNN analyst, Abrini's arrest also puts pressure on Belgian authorities to find out information quickly.
Days after Abdeslam was arrested, terrorists carried out an attack in Brussels that left 32 dead and scores wounded. A senior counterterrorism official has said the 26-year-old was probably going to be part of an attack planned by the same ISIS cell.
"Hopefully Belgian counterterrorism officials won't make the same mistake they made last time with Abdeslam," said Bergen, the vice president of the New America public policy institute. "They didn't ask him about what else was in the pipeline."
Who is Mohamed Abrini?
According to a European police cooperative known as ENFAST, video showed Abrini with Abdeslam on November 11, two days before the massacre in the French capital.
The same Renault Clio that Abrini drove was used in those attacks, ENFAST reports. Abdeslam told authorities he drove a car of that same make and model to the Stade de France -- where suicide bombers detonated explosives outside a soccer game -- andand allegedly "contacted one person," that being Abrini, abandoned it.
He then wandered into the subway CNN's French affiliate BFMTV reported.
Abrini has a criminal record of violent theft. He also had a younger brother killed while fighting for ISIS in 2014, and he was in Istanbul, Turkey, briefly last summer and possibly in Syria.
Relatives have insisted Abrini was in Brussels the night of the Paris attacks.
More than four months later, Belgian state broadcaster VRT reports Abrini was still in the Belgian capital -- playing a hands-on role in the terror attacks there.
He is "more than likely" one of three men shown on surveillance video rolling luggage carts through Brussels airport, according to VRT. The two others died in suicide blasts at the airport, while the third walked away.
On Thursday, Belgian police released a series of surveillance images showing him leaving the airport in Zaventem, then heading west into the Brussels district of Schaerbeek, over the course of two hours following the bombings.
News Source: CNN
No comments:
Post a Comment