Police arrest two persons suspected of planning attacks in Belgium

Brussels: Belgian police arrested two men “suspected of planning an attack” in Belgium following raids ordered by an anti-terror judge on Friday night, federal prosecutors said. Belgium has remained on high alert following the deadly bombings in March claimed by the Islamic State group in Brussels and a wave of deadly attacks in the last month in France and Germany, some of them claimed by IS. The two men, identified as Noureddine H and his brother Hamza H, were arrested following house searches in the French-speaking areas of Mons and Liege, a spokesman for the federal prosecutors said. “Both are suspected of planning a terrorist attack somewhere in Belgium,” the spokesman said in an English version of the statement. The French version referred to “planning attacks” in the plural. [caption id=“attachment_2924638” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The March bombings near a metro station in Brussels killed 32 people. AFP file image[/caption] The prosecutor’s office said they haven’t uncovered anything linking the two arrested with the 22 March bombings at Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union headquarters that left 32 people dead. No weapons or explosives were found in the raids, ordered by a judge specialising in counter-terror cases, it said. A judge will review the arrests of the brothers later on Saturday and decide whether to keep them in custody. Several of those involved in the Brussels bloodshed were directly linked to the 13 November attacks in Paris which left 130 dead. Belgian authorities had charged two men with terrorist offences last month amid reports of a planned attack on a Euro 2016 fanzone in central Brussels. Belgium then beefed up security for its 21 July national day celebrations after the truck attack that killed 84 people in the French city of Nice on Bastille Day on 14 July. Belgian authorities had previously anticipated a possible truck-style attack before the Nice carnage.