Full Coverage: Terrorist attacks in Brussels
More than 30 people are believed dead after three explosions went off Tuesday in the Belgian capital: two in Brussels Airport and one at Maelbeek metro station, near European Union institutions. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, attributing them to a “security group from the soldiers of the caliphate.”
Here’s what we know so far:
- 1
A man suspected of being the mysterious “man in the hat” and thought to have been involved in the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels was arrested in the Belgian capital after a manhunt throughout Europe, authorities said Friday.
- 2
Belgian prosecutors launched a public appeal Thursday seeking any information on the “man in hat” suspect in the Brussels Airport suicide bombings that killed 16 people.
- 3
They called him Papa Noel — Father Christmas — and not only because of his thick beard and stocky build.
- 4
A man arrested as a suspect in the deadly bombings at a city airport and subway station has been released for lack of evidence, officials said Monday, as the death toll in the attacks climbs to 32.
- 5
Three suspects detained earlier this week have been officially charged with terrorist activities, prosecutors in Belgium said Saturday, as investigators in this tense capital continue to track down leads from the deadly bombings targeting the airport and metro.
- 6
Belgian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant Saturday for a new suspect in the attacks on the Brussels airport and subway as authorities moved to clean up damage caused by the explosions.
- 7
Flight attendant Nidhi Chaphekar became a symbol of the Brussels Airport attack when a photograph of her looking stunned and bloodied, her yellow blazer in tatters, circulated worldwide.
- 8
Punctuated with gunfire and explosions, a new series of anti-terrorism raids unfolded Friday in the Belgian capital as the French president declared that the extremist cell behind Tuesday’s bombings in Brussels and the attacks last November in Paris was being “annihilated.”
- 9
Cuba. Madagascar. Venezuela. Ecuador. I was being taken on a tour du monde without leaving Brussels.
- 10
Police have detained six people in nighttime raids in central Brussels in a military-style operation linked to the deadly attacks on the city’s airport and subways.
- 11
The failure of Belgian authorities to foil deadly attacks on the airport and metro this week has fueled new questions about the nation’s ability to handle the extremist threat and on Thursday prompted two top ministers to offer their resignations.
- 12
When authorities identified two of the Brussels bombers as Brahim and Khalid El Bakraoui, it underscored what’s become a strangely familiar pattern – brothers working together in the name of terrorism.
- 13
- 14
The brothers fit what European anti-terrorism investigators call a disturbing but now-familiar profile.
- 15
The physical damage was easy to see.
- 16
Brussels Airport will remain closed at least through Friday after deadly terrorist attacks in which two bombs exploded in the airport’s departures hall.
- 17
The Islamic State group has trained at least 400 fighters to target Europe in deadly waves of attacks, deploying interlocking terrorist cells like the ones that struck Brussels and Paris with orders to choose the time, place and method for maximum carnage, the Associated Press has learned.
- 18
- 19
Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels raise two key questions: Were they related to Salah Abdeslam’s arrest last week and, if so, how?
- 20
Just days after a suspect in last year’s Paris attacks was taken into custody, another set of coordinated assaults was launched on a city that serves as the de facto capital of Europe.
- 21
For months, Salah Abdeslam was Europe’s most-wanted man.
- 22
The deadly attacks on Brussels brought swift condemnation across the Middle East, but some countries seized the moment to criticize the West for adhering to policies that they said had planted the seeds for such acts of terrorism.
- 23
With sirens wailing, heavily armed soldiers patrolling street corners, rail stations closed and tight controls in place at border crossings, this country felt gripped in a state of war.
- 24
- 25
The Brussels attacks were precipitated by the arrest of a man who was believed to be a mastermind of the Paris attacks in November.
- 26
Among those injured in Tuesday’s terror attacks in Brussels were several Americans, including a group of Mormon missionaries and a U.S. serviceman and his family.
- 27
Travelers who have plans to fly to Belgium and other European countries after three deadly terrorist bombings Tuesday may be able to change or cancel flights without penalty.
- 28
It has been clear at least since the massacre in Paris last November that jihadist terrorists are embedded in Europe, difficult to detect and determined to engage in spectacular acts of violence.
- 29
In December, a married couple who authorities said had been “self-radicalized” killed 14 people in San Bernardino in what has been described as the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
- 30
The deadly terrorist bombing at the Brussels Airport is a grim reminder of how Los Angeles’ own airport has been targeted by terrorism over the years.
- 31
U.S. cities have stepped up security measures in the wake of the deadly bombings in Brussels, although Department of Homeland Security officials said no credible threats have been detected against U.S. targets.
- 32
After terrorist attacks killed dozens in Brussels and injured scores more, extra law enforcement officers were out at some of Los Angeles’ transportation hubs and high-profile sites Tuesday in a show of force to reassure the public.
- 33
- 34
Sometimes things like soccer just don’t matter.
- 35
- 36
At least 30 people died in terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday.