3 terrorist suspects, others arrested in Brussels; ties to Paris attacks

UPDATE, 8:30pmEDT: From the BBC…

Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has been wounded and arrested in a dramatic raid in Brussels after four months on the run.
Another man arrested, Monir Ahmed Alaaj, was also on a wanted list, Belgian prosecutors said.
Three members of a family accused of harbouring Abdeslam have also been detained.
French President Francois Hollande said he expected Abdeslam to be extradited to France “as rapidly as possible”.
The raid in the district of Molenbeek came after Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found in a flat in another Brussels district, which was raided on Tuesday.

The operation unfolded from late afternoon until evening in the district just outside Brussels:

[It] began around 4:30 p.m., when the police raided three locations simultaneously, two in Molenbeek, where Mr. Abdeslam had grown up, and one in another neighborhood, Jette. Mr. Abdeslam was captured 10 minutes later after fleeing a house on the Rue des Quatre-Vents in Molenbeek.

Inside the house, the police arrested a man suspected of being an accomplice, who was slightly wounded.

That suspect — who has used the aliases Monir Ahmed Alaaj and Amine Choukri, and whose real identity is unclear — was stopped in Ulm, Germany, with Mr. Abdeslam on Oct. 3, the police said, and the suspect’s fingerprints matched prints found after the Paris attacks in a safe house in Auvelais, a town in Belgium.

About four hours after the arrests of Mr. Abdeslam and the man thought to be his accomplice, and after further gunfire and explosions, the police arrested the three members of the family that they believe had helped hide Mr. Abdeslam.

Eric Van der Sijpt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor in Brussels, said it was possible Mr. Abdeslam had spent “days, weeks or months” in the area.

The raids on the other two locations turned up empty.

As the police operation unfolded, Molenbeek filled with journalists and angry onlookers, who have protested what they consider unfair and heavy-handed interrogations by the police since the November attacks.

But other residents welcomed the capture.

UPDATE, 12:45pmEDT: CNN’s Dirk Coosemans reports that terrorist Salah Abdesalam is in custody; gunfire was heard as late as 10 minutes ago.
CNN is reporting that Belgian police have undertaken four raids in Brussels, and wounded and taken into custody two violent extremists with links to Daesh [ISIS] and last year’s devastating terrorist attacks in Paris. Sources report that there is reason to believe that one of the suspects is Salah Abdesalam, who is believed to have been a logistician and leader of the Paris attacks.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.