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| A Belgian Army soldier patrols on a main boulevard in Brussels, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015. Western leaders stepped up the rhetoric against the Islamic State group on Sunday as residents of the Belgian capital awoke to largely empty streets and the city entered its second day under the highest threat level. With a menace of Paris-style attacks against Brussels and a missing suspect in the deadly Nov. 13 attacks in France last spotted crossing into Belgium, the city kept subways and underground trams closed for a second day. |
BRUSSELS
(AP) -- Belgian prosecutors announced early Monday that police had
detained 16 people in 22 raids but that Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslam
was not among them. Despite the raids, authorities maintained their
highest terror alert in the capital for a third straight day.
Federal
prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said 19 raids were carried out in
Molenbeek and other boroughs of Brussels and three raids were carried
out in other cities.
"We have to stress that
no firearms or explosives were discovered ... during the raids," Van Der
Sypt said." Certain elements in the investigation made Sunday's
intervention necessary. The investigation will in any case be
relentlessly continued."
One of those detained was injured when a car he was in tried to ram police during an attempted getaway, Van Der Sypt said.
The
raids capped a tense day with hundreds of troops patrolling and
authorities hunting for one or more suspected militants, the Belgian
government chose Sunday to keep the capital on the highest state of
alert into the start of the workweek to prevent a Paris-style attack.
Citing
a "serious and imminent" threat, Prime Minister Charles Michel
announced that schools and universities in Brussels will be closed
Monday, with the subway remaining shut down, preventing a return to
normal in the city that is also home to the European Union's main
institutions.
"We fear an attack like in
Paris, with several individuals, perhaps in several places," Michel said
after chairing a meeting of Belgium's National Security Council.
While
Brussels was kept on the highest of four alert levels, the rest of the
country remains on a Level 3 alert, meaning an attack is "possible and
likely."
"Nobody is pleased with such a situation. Neither are we. But we have to take our responsibility," Michel said.
Western
leaders stepped up the rhetoric against the Islamic State group, which
has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris that killed 130
people and wounded hundreds more; the suicide bombings in Beirut that
killed 43 people and injured more than 200; and the downing of the
Russian jetliner carrying 224 people in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. All
happened within the past month.
"We will not
accept the idea that terrorist assaults on restaurants and theaters and
hotels are the new normal, or that we are powerless to stop them,"
President Barack Obama said in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
French
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said IS must be destroyed at all
costs. "We must annihilate Islamic State worldwide ... and we must
destroy Islamic State on its own territory," Le Drian said. "That's the
only possible direction."
The decision to put
Brussels on the highest alert came early Saturday as authorities
frantically searched for Abdeslam, who is believed to have played a key
role in the Nov. 13 attacks in France. He is known to have crossed into
Belgium the day after the attacks.
Interior
Minister Jan Jambon warned that the threat wouldn't necessarily
disappear if Abdeslam was found, because they are looking for several
people in connection with a possible planned attack in Brussels.
"The
terror threat is wider than just that person," Jambon said. "We are
looking at several things. That is why we are making the big show of
power and following everything up by the minute. It's of no use to hide
this."
Several of the Paris attackers had
lived in Brussels, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the plot's orchestrator
who was killed Wednesday in a standoff with French police.
Abdeslam
is known to have crossed into Belgium on Nov. 14. His brother, Mohamed
Abdeslam, went on Belgian TV and urged him to surrender, saying he would
rather see him "in prison than in a cemetery."
Authorities
in Turkey said Saturday that a 26-year-old Belgian citizen suspected of
being linked to Islamic extremists and possibly to the Paris attacks
had been detained in the coastal city of Antalya.
France
has intensified its aerial bombing in Syria and Le Drian said the
aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which has been sent to the
Mediterranean to help combat IS militants in Syria, will be
"operational" from Monday and "ready to act."
Also
Monday, French President Francois Hollande is scheduled to meet in
Paris with British Prime Minister David Cameron and will travel to
Washington and Moscow later in the week to push for a stronger
international coalition against IS. Cameron is expected to outline his
plan for combating the militants as he seeks parliamentary approval to
join France, the U.S. and Russia in striking the group's strongholds in
Syria.
Russia also is trumpeting action it's
taking to fight IS. It has intensified its airstrikes in Syria in
response to the
Oct. 31 downing of its passenger plane in Egypt.
On
Sunday, Russian law enforcement officers raided a militant hideout in
the North Caucasus, killing 11 in an exchange of fire. The militants
were part of a group whose members had pledged allegiance to IS, the
National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement.
Attacks
like those in Paris are aimed partly at provoking the West, as the
Islamic State group hopes that stepped-up military action in the region
will reinforce its narrative of a clash of civilizations and attract
more Muslims to its ranks. IS and other militant groups seize on harsh
Western rhetoric and civilian deaths to portray themselves as defending
Muslims from modern "Crusaders."
In an effort
to minimize possible targets, Belgian officials recommended that sports
competitions and all activities in public buildings be canceled this
weekend, and malls and commercial centers closed.
The
security measures left Brussels eerily quiet, with streets deserted and
many of the city's famous beer bars and restaurants largely empty.
Residents
were bracing for the impact that the continued clampdown would have on
this city of more than 1 million as the workweek began.
"I
can't believe they are closing down the city. It is crazy but they must
have a good reason," said Josephine Lemmens, a physiotherapist.
Lemmens
said she didn't know what she would do with her 11-year-old son now
that schools have been
ordered closed, but she conceded the measures
were justified if they prevented an attack like the one in Paris.
Restaurant worker Raphael Lungo said the decision to keep the subway idle would affect him most.
"This
is really going to complicate my life. I take the metro very day and I
don't know what I will do tomorrow," he said, voicing confidence that
the emergency wouldn't last too long. "Europe succeeded in beating the
Nazis," he said.
The European Union's
executive Commission decided to stay open for business but its vice
president, Kristalina Georgieva, warned people to be vigilant and expect
increased security checks. NATO also said it would be open Monday, with
security measures increased.
In France,
police issued a new appeal to identify the third attacker who was killed
in the assault at th
national stadium. They posted a photo of the man
on Twitter, asking the public for information that would help identify
him.
France has extended a state of emergency,
which allows police raids, searches and house arrest without permission
from a judge, for three months. On Saturday, it also extended a ban on
demonstrations and other gatherings through Nov. 30, when a U.N. climate
conference with more than 100 heads of state is scheduled to start.
In
a sign of the nervousness in Paris since the attacks, some travelers at
the Gare Du Nord station ran out of their trains Sunday after hearing
noises they thought were gunshots but actually were caused by a pigeon
being electrocuted on the tracks.
