Brussels terrorists were planning another attack on France, prosecutors say

The Belgium-based militants who killed 32 people in twin attacks in Brussels last month had originally planned to launch another assault in France, as a follow-up to the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. But they abruptly changed their plans, deciding to instead strike closer to home, as investigators were closing in on the remains of the terror cell, Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.

“Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again,” the Belgian prosecutors’ office said in a statement. “Eventually, surprised by the speed of progress in the investigation, they took the decision to strike in Brussels.”

French prosecutors had said they believed the terrorists were planning to attack La Defense, a major business district in the Paris metropolitan area where many thousands of people work in the headquarters of some of France’s leading companies and multinational firms.

The revelation came days after police in Belgium arrested a chief suspect wanted in both the Paris and Brussels attacks. Mohamed Abrini was arrested in a raid on Friday in Brussels and charged Saturday with “terrorist murder” and belonging to a terror organization. He admitted to being the third bombing suspect caught on surveillance footage at the Brussels airport, known in the media as the “man in the hat,” authorities said.

The two other men who appear on the surveillance video next to Abrini, pushing luggage trolleys laden with explosives, died detonating their bombs at the airport.

Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian national of Moroccan origin, fled the airport just before the bombs blew up, authorities said. He was later seen on surveillance videos walking away from the airport into the city.

Police officers take part in an operation in Brussels after a deadly terrorist attack in late March.

(Nicolas Maeterlinck / AFP/Getty Images)

Abrini’s arrest and the swift confirmation that he was the third suspect in the Brussels airport bombing represented a major breakthrough for Belgium’s beleaguered security services, and was hailed as a “positive development” by Prime Minister Charles Michel.

Three other suspects arrested Friday in Brussels were charged with being part of a terrorist organization. Prosecutors did not release the full names of the other men who were charged, identifying them only as Herve B.M., a Rwandan national; Bilal E.M.; and Osama K. Belgian media reported that Osama K. is a Swedish national, and is believed to have appeared on security footage at the Brussels subway before the explosion there.

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FOR THE RECORD:

April 10, 3:55 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said that Belgian media identified Osama K. as a Swiss national. They identified him as a Swedish national.

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Another prime suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels following a shootout with police on March 18, days before the Brussels bombings. Abdeslam grew up in Belgium, and French prosecutors said he had planned to detonate a suicide bomb at Paris’ Stade de France on Nov. 13 but backed out at the last minute and fled.

Investigators believe the capture of Abdeslam, dubbed Europe’s “most wanted man” at the time, forced the Brussels cell to set its sights on Belgium and accelerate the timing of the attack. The attackers struck four days after Abdeslam’s arrest.

The dual March 22 bombings at the airport and a busy subway station have shaken Europe’s confidence in its ability to thwart terrorism. Belgian security services have come under fire for failing to neutralize the Brussels terror cell after the attacks in Paris. Most of the participants of the Paris attacks were later identified as Belgian nationals or French citizens who had lived in Belgium, where the attacks were believed to have been planned.

More than 400 Belgian citizens have gone to fight in Syria, according to official estimates, the highest per-capita number among European nations. Authorities estimate that more than 100 returned to Belgium. Europe has not made widespread changes to how intelligence is shared, and the attacks in Paris and Brussels have renewed calls for greater cooperation and intelligence sharing in fighting terrorist networks.

In Germany, Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the country’s domestic BfV intelligence agency said Sunday that Islamic State wants to carry out attacks in Germany and called the security situation “extremely serious.”

Maassen told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Islamic State propaganda was aimed at encouraging supporters to launch attacks in Germany, which has so far been fortunate to have not been attacked. About one-third of the 800 German citizens who traveled to Syrian and northern Iraq in recent years have returned, according to the newspaper.

Kirschbaum is a special correspondent.