Belgian police carried out a series of raids in Belgium on Thursday evening, killing two alleged terrorists who police said were part of a terror cell that was ready to launch ‘attacks on a grand scale’.
The anti-terror raids came after a surveillance campaign lasting several months on a network of alleged jihadists who had returned to Belgium from Syria.
One of the raids targeted a home near the central railway station of the eastern city of Verviers. Three suspects, armed with ‘military weaponry and handguns’, opened fire on special forces from inside the house. An intense gunfight followed during which two of the suspects died.
Authorities obtained ten warrants to conduct simultaneous raids in Brussels, Molenbeek, Vilvorde and Verviers.
Another suspect was wounded, while no police officers or members of the public were injured in the Verviers raid.
Belgian authorities said the raids were not connected to last week’s Paris attacks, but they earlier arrested a man who is suspected of selling firearms to Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris.
It is estimated that about 300 Belgian nationals have travelled to Syria, likely to receive combat training. Belgium has the highest per capita concentration of Islamic fighters in Europe.
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