Belgium says it thwarted group planning to attack country’s prime minister
4272 Mins Read
A suspected terrorist cell was dismantled by Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office on Thursday, believed to have been planning an attack on Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
Local media reported that during a search in Deurne, a district in the municipality of Antwerp, investigators discovered a homemade explosive which the suspects were reportedly planning to attach to a drone to carry out the attack.
“Three young adults (born in 2001, 2002 and 2007, all residing in Antwerp) were deprived of their liberty. This judicial intervention is part of an investigation into, among other things, attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
An investigation has been opened for attempted terrorist assassination and participation in the activities of a terrorist group, but prosecutors did not specify the group.
The Belgian deputy prime minister Maxime Prevot said on Thursday.
“The news of a planned attack targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking,” Prevot wrote on X.
“It highlights that we are facing a very real terrorist threat and that we have to remain vigilant,” he added.
(NL/FR) Het nieuws over een geplande aanslag tegen eerste minister @Bart_DeWever is diep schokkend.
Ik betuig mijn volle steun aan de premier, zijn echtgenote en zijn gezin, en mijn dank gaat uit naar de veiligheids- en justitiediensten, van wie het snelle optreden het ergste…
The Belgium federal public prosecutor’s office said the suspects had been arrested and were being questioned by Antwerp police as a result of an operation against the cell.
“This judicial intervention is part of an investigation into, among other things, attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” it said in a statement.
“There are indications that the intention was to carry out a jihadist-inspired terrorist attack targeting politicians,” added the prosecutor’s office.
It said searches of the houses of suspects in Antwerp had turned up a device that looked similar to an improvised explosive device, a bag of steel balls and indications that the group aimed to use a drone as part of their attack.
In March 2016, 32 people were killed in suicide bomb explosions at Brussels airport and in the city’s metro in attacks claimed by Islamic State, while in October 2023 a self-proclaimed Islamist militant shot dead two Swedish citizens who had been in Brussels for an international soccer match.
