BRUSSELS: Belgian ministers under fire for intelligence failings over the deadly Islamic State suicide attacks on Brussels admitted “errors” and offered to resign Thursday as police hunted two suspects still at large after the bombings.
With criticism growing that international security authorities failed to follow links between Tuesday’s bombings and similar attacks that hit France in November, key Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam insisted he was unaware of plans to strike the Belgian capital.
Grieving Belgians observed a minute of silence on the third and final day of mourning for the 31 people killed in the attacks on the airport and a metro station in the symbolic heart of Europe, putting security agencies across the continent on edge.
Several hundred people gathered at the central Place de la Bourse square, strewn with candles, balloons and flowers as flags from several nations fluttered from the columns of the stock exchange building.
“Our love for Brussels is stronger than terror,” read one banner held by a grieving young couple.
As pressure mounted on Belgium’s government over claims it ignored the deportation of airport bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui from Turkey in 2015 as a “foreign terrorist fighter”, the interior and justice ministers tendered their resignations.
“There were errors at Justice and with the (Belgian) liaison officer in Turkey,” Interior Minister Jan Jambon was quoted as telling the Le Soir daily on Thursday, confirming that he and Justice Minister Koen Geens had both offered to quit.
Prime Minister Charles Michel, who turned down their offers, pledged the government would “shed light” on the handling of the attacks, given that three of the perpetrators were already known to police.
The Belgian blunders have implications for the rest of Europe, with evidence deepening by the day that both the Brussels and Paris cells were the work of a militant cell based out of Brussels.
Police arrested Abdeslam just around the corner from his family home in Brussels last Friday, after he spent four months on the run following the attacks on Paris which killed 130 people in November .
Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary said on Thursday his client, the last known survivor of the 10 men who carried out the bloody assault on the French capital, now did not want to fight extradition to Paris.
Asked if Abdeslam had prior knowledge of Tuesday’s assault on Brussels, Mary replied: “He didn’t know it.”
However, Abdeslam is said to have links to Ibrahim El Bakraoui and his brother Khalid, who bombed Maalbeek metro station.
