Paris terror suspect Abdeslam planned more attacks- Belgian FM
Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested last week in a police riot for playing a key role in the Paris attacks in November, is thought to have plotted more future attacks on Belgian soil. This was announced on Monday by the Belgian’s foreign minister in a security forum.
“The first comments coming from Salah Abdeslam was yesterday that he wanted to go Stade de France in Paris and wanted to be a suicide bombing but he stopped. We don’t know why but he stopped. And the next information are that he was ready to restart something from Brussels and it’s maybe the reality because I said we found a lot of weapons, heavy weapons, in the first investigations and we have seen a new network of people around him in Brussels,” the minister revealed.
Asked if Abdesalam had a lot of accomplices, Reynders said he had closed links with criminal and terrorist networks, adding the two often have the same modus operandi.
“Of course. There are many networks, not only members… may be members of his family, people with some… the same ideology like himself, but there are so many links between the so-called terrorists and the criminals. They are using the same tools, they are using the same caves, the same apartments, the same locations. And there are many links between some criminals, not only in Brussels, we have seen that in Paris. After the terrorist attacks it was possible to find some apartments with the same kind of relations between criminal guys and terrorists.”
According to Reynerds, the Belgian authorities have found more than 30 people involved in the terrorist attacks in Paris, where 130 people were killed. He also added that the EU-wide intelligence had a vital role tracking Abdeslam, as well as information from Turkey in particular.
Abdeslam is believed to have transporter other militants and buying materials used to make the explosives for the Paris attacks. In the night of the massacre, the Belgian-born French national is believed to have driven a rental car, which was later discovered near the Bataclan concert hall.
While his brother Brahim was one of the suicide bombers in the attacks, the 26-year-old suspect is thought to have been wearing an explosives belt too, but backed down in the last minute.
Written by Yoana for South Front
