Islamic State claims attack that killed two people in Brussels

O Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack carried out on Monday in the center of Brussels, which killed two supporters of the Swedish football team and left a third injured.

The Amaq news agency, which promotes the group, published a statement stating that “an Islamic State fighter carried out, on Monday, an armed attack against several citizens of Sweden, a country that participates in the international coalition against the Islamic State.” The message was also published on the Islamic group’s channel on the Telegram platform and shared by Reuters.

Amaq, which cites sources in the security sector, indicated that the combatant, of whom it did not mention the name but released a photograph, “started firing his machine gun at the Christians, before they watched a game, killing two of them and wounding two others, before Belgian forces killed him as they sought to detain him.”

Abdeselam L, 45 years old, was intercepted by authorities this Tuesday during the police search operation launched after the attack on Monday night, in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels. Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden confirmed the death and the recovery of the weapon used in the crime.

The man was a 45-year-old Tunisian, whose asylum request had been rejected in 2019. However, he continued to live illegally in Belgium, according to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

The man was already known to the police for human trafficking, illegal residence and a risk to state security.

In 2016, a foreign security service reported him as a radicalized profile, ready to fight in a conflict zone for jihad, “but this was part of dozens of daily reports of this type”, at the time, explained the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne.

Following the attacker’s death, Belgium reduced the alert level in Brussels, from four (maximum) to three.

[Notícia atualizada às 22h17]

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