Attack attacks in Belgium are back on high. Twelve people suspected of preparing an “imminent” attack were stopped in the night in a raid in 16 municipalities in Brussels, but also in Wallonia and Flanders. Only 3 were indicted on terrorism charges. Forty people questioned. According to the Belgian TV channel RTBF, some of the men arrested last night in the big anti-terrorist raid, already followed by the police for days, roamed by car in the center of Brussels, in particular in the ‘fan zone’ of Euro 2016, in Rogier, where he is A maxi-screen has been installed to broadcast the Belgian national team’s matches. And therefore “a plausible hypothesis”, reports RTBF, that the terrorists’ target was that area, where today from 15.00 Belgium-Ireland is broadcast. Voltage also in France. The police have found asuspicious packetin Bordeaux, where the Europeans’ game is scheduled, and around they are going wild with chaos.

“The police intervened before an attack could occur,” said Flemish TV journalist VTM, Farouk Ozgunes. And at the news the panic spread quickly.
The three arrested are three Belgian citizens: Samir C., born 12 January 1989; Moustapha B., born March 14, 1976 and Jawad B. Born March 3, 1987. They were indicted on charges of having planned or collaborated in the realization of a terrorist attack and for the participation of a terrorist group. The other 9 were questioned but then released. Among these was also that which had been identified as one of the alleged accomplices of the bombers who struck Brussels’ Zaventem airport on 22 March and then the Belgian capital’s metro. The 31-year-old man, indicated by the prosecutor as Youssef EA of Belgian nationality, who worked inside the airport and was in possession of the badge that allowed him direct access to the runway and the planes, is among those released. Youssef was a childhood friend of Khalid El Bakraoui, one of the two terrorists who blew himself up. He was also a friend of other suspects including Ali El Haddad Asufi, author of the Maelbeek station attack.

In the blitz about 152 searches were carried out between Brussels, Molenbeek-St.-Jean, Schaerbeek, Anderlecht, Koekelberg, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Evere, Forest, Watermael-Boitsfort, Ganshoren, Zaventem, Ninove, Wemmel, Fleurus, Tubize and Liège, according to a statement released by the federal prosecutor’s office.
To trigger the impressive operation, according to Le Soir , the interception of a phone call that spoke of “imminent attacks” in the Belgian capital. “Neither weapons nor explosives” have been discovered until now, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that “the evidence gathered during the investigation necessitated immediate action”. The National Security Council met at noon in the cabinet of Prime Minister Charles Michel. The alert level in Belgium and in the capital remains at level 3 (out of 4), but “additional security measures will be taken and adapted” to counterterrorism information, Michel has at the end of the meeting. Level 3 means that the threat is serious, possible and likely, but that there is no specific information of an imminent threat.

According to BmfTv, many of the suspects were monitored and followed by the counterterrorism team for days because they were considered members of a cell that had the will, but above all the means to commit attacks.
Several government ministers and the Belgian premier were put under high protection by the police, following a new evaluation of the OCC, the Belgian anti-terrorism. The move is not linked to the arrests of last night and to the possible related threat. Het Nieuwsblad and the RTBF TV report. The OCAM has estimated that the terrorist threat weighs in particular on four members of the government: Prime Minister Charles Michel, Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, Interior Jan Jambon and Justice Koen Geens. Together with their families, around thirty people in all, have been placed under high police protection since Friday night.