Wanted notice for suspected Brussels suicide bomber taken down
Date
3/25/2016 11:56:47 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Police forces stand next to a bomb squad unit robot (L) during an demining operation at a tramway station on March 25 2016 in Schaerbeek suburb Brussels during a bomb alert as Belgian police arrested a suspect in a fresh anti-terrorist operation. A French police source said the raids in the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek were related to the arrest of 34-year-old Reda Kriket in Paris on March 24 who was found with heavy weapons and explosives in his apartment. / AFP / PATRIK STOLLARZ
BRUSSELS: A wanted notice for suspected Brussels Airport suicide bomber Najim Laachraoui was removed from the Belgian police website on Friday reinforcing the view that he did blow himself up in Tuesday’s attacks.
A police official declined to say why the notice was taken down but added that all requests to publish or remove notices come from prosecutors. The federal prosecutor’s office was not immediately available to comment.
Belgian media have referred to Laachraoui as one of two suicide bombers at the airport but prosecutors have not confirmed this.
Authorities have not confirmed that Laachraoui is dead and his family has also not been informed his brother Mourad told journalists on Thursday.
The removal of the notice is an indication that the veteran Islamist fighter in Syria and suspected maker of explosive belts used in last November’s Paris attacks is no longer alive.
(Reporting by Bate Felix; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)
Reuters