2016 Brussels bombings

== Perpetrators ==
[[File:Brussels suspects CCTV.jpg|thumb|Still from [[Closed-circuit television|CCTV]] footage showing Najim Laachraoui (left), [[Ibrahim El Bakraoui]] (centre), and [[Mohamed Abrini]] (right).<ref name="BBC35869985"/>]]

{{see also|Brussels ISIL terror cell}}

=== Profiles ===
A total of five attackers took bombs into the airport and metro, with three of them dying in suicide bombings and the remaining two, who left without detonating their bombs, arrested sixteen days later. All five had also been involved in the planning and organization of the [[November 2015 Paris attacks]]. They were identified and named as:

* [[Ibrahim El Bakraoui]], aged 29, was one of the suicide bombers at Brussels Airport. In 2010, he had shot and injured a police officer during an attempted robbery at a [[Bureau de change|currency exchange]] office. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was released early. In June 2015 he was arrested in Turkey near the Syrian border and deported. He was wanted in connection with the Paris attacks.<ref name=Guardian240316>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/23/brussels-attacks-schaerbeek-flat-coordinated-atrocities-plotted-el-bakraoui|title=The men in the top floor flat who sowed terror in Brussels|date=24 March 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=12 March 2023|archive-date=12 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312203911/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/23/brussels-attacks-schaerbeek-flat-coordinated-atrocities-plotted-el-bakraoui|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Najim Laachraoui]], aged 24, was one of the suicide bombers at Brussels Airport. He had travelled to [[Syria]] in 2013. He is believed to have made the bombs used in the Paris attacks.<ref name=Guardian240316/>
* [[Khalid El Bakraoui]]: aged 27, the younger brother of Ibrahim El Bakraoui, carried out the suicide bombing at Maelbeek metro station. In 2012 he received a prison sentence for a violent car-jacking. He was wanted for breaching his parole conditions and also in connection with the Paris attacks.<ref name=Guardian240316/>
* [[Mohamed Abrini]], born 27 December 1984, fled Brussels Airport without detonating his bomb. He was arrested on 8 April 2016. He was a childhood friend of brothers [[Salah Abdeslam]] and Brahim Adbeslam, who were both involved in the Paris attacks. On 29 June 2022 at a [[Paris attacks trial|court in Paris]], Abrini was convicted of involvement in the attacks and received a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61989354 |title=Paris trial: Salah Abdeslam guilty as historic trial ends |work=BBC |date=30 June 2022 |access-date=8 December 2022 |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209182729/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61989354 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Osama Krayem]]: born 16 August 1992, accompanied Khalid El Bakraoui to the metro but fled without detonating his explosives. He was arrested on 8 April 2016.<ref name="BBC35869985"/> Having grown up in Sweden, he went to Syria in 2015 and joined the IS group.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/brussels-bombings-osama-krayem-suspect-charged-role-paris-attacks|title=Brussels bombings suspect charged with role in Paris attacks|date=20 April 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=12 March 2023|archive-date=12 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312203911/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/brussels-bombings-osama-krayem-suspect-charged-role-paris-attacks|url-status=live}}</ref> On 29 June 2022 at the Paris attacks trial, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.<ref name=BBC/>

=== Investigation ===

The airport attackers had ordered a taxi from an address on the Rue Max Roos/Max Roosstraat in [[Schaerbeek]], a northern municipality of Brussels, on 22 March 2016. Within half an hour of the airport attack, the taxi driver had contacted police. On hearing of the attacks on the radio, he became suspicious of his previous passengers who had refused his offer of help with loading and unloading their heavy suitcases, and had left a chemical smell in the taxi. He went to a police station and was able to recognise the three men from [[closed-circuit television|security camera]] video of Brussels Airport which showed the attackers pushing the suitcases containing bombs on luggage trolleys in the departure hall.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://bx1.be/dossiers/attentats-de-bruxelles/proces-des-attentats-le-chauffeur-de-taxi-decrit-son-trajet-vers-brussels-airport-avec-les-terroristes/|title=Procès des attentats de Bruxelles : taxi, fausses pistes, perquisitions… le récit de l'enquête se poursuit|date=11 January 2023|work=BX1|access-date=9 March 2023|archive-date=9 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309133842/https://bx1.be/dossiers/attentats-de-bruxelles/proces-des-attentats-le-chauffeur-de-taxi-decrit-son-trajet-vers-brussels-airport-avec-les-terroristes/|url-status=live}}</ref>
This early lead allowed the police to search the apartment on the Rue Max Roos the same day. They found a suitcase bomb that had been left behind because it would not fit into the taxi, and also bomb making material and equipment and an [[Jihadist black flag|IS flag]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/judiciaire/2023/01/16/attentats-de-bruxelles-max-roos-une-planque-dediee-a-la-fabrication-des-explosifs-utilises-a-zaventem-et-maelbeek-IT4GTUJR3JGGTDM3EXWE4FS2CE/ |title=Attentats de Bruxelles : Max Roos, une planque dédiée à la fabrication des explosifs utilisés à Zaventem et Maelbeek |date=16 January 2023 |work=La Libre |access-date=13 March 2023 |archive-date=13 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313132317/https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/judiciaire/2023/01/16/attentats-de-bruxelles-max-roos-une-planque-dediee-a-la-fabrication-des-explosifs-utilises-a-zaventem-et-maelbeek-IT4GTUJR3JGGTDM3EXWE4FS2CE/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Earlier in the morning of 22 March 2016, municipal workers clearing rubbish in rue Max Roos had retrieved a laptop from a bin. When they realized that it contained IS-related material they handed it to the police. Analysis of the laptop revealed numerous files relating to IS, the Paris attacks, potential targets (including the [[Prime Minister of Belgium|Belgian Prime Minister]] [[Charles Michel]]), as well as messages, texts, wills and photographs created by the Brussels attackers.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35924363|title=Brussels bombers may have targeted Belgian PM Michel|date=30 March 2016|work=BBC News|access-date=13 March 2023|archive-date=13 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313132317/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35924363|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 24 and 25 March 2016 police arrested twelve people in raids in Belgium, France and Germany. One man was identified as the third airport attacker, the "man in the hat" seen on CCTV with the two suicide bombers at the airport on the day of the attacks. He was charged with terrorist offences.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35903368|title=Brussels attacks: Man charged with terrorist offences|work=BBC News|date=26 March 2016|access-date=21 June 2018|archive-date=1 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401025042/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35903368|url-status=live}}</ref> It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity and the man was released after providing an alibi. Abrini later admitted to being the "man in the hat".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-terror-attacks-wrong-man-in-the-hat-faycal-cheffou-i-am-a-broken-man-airport/ |title=Wrong 'man in the hat' Fayçal Cheffou: 'I am a broken man' |date=13 May 2016 |work=Politico |access-date=13 March 2023 |archive-date=13 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313132317/https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-terror-attacks-wrong-man-in-the-hat-faycal-cheffou-i-am-a-broken-man-airport/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[Next Generation Identification|Next Gen Identification System]] [[facial recognition software]] helped confirm the identification of the "man with the hat" on CCTV footage as Abrini.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/faits-divers/attentats-a-bruxelles-mohamed-abrini-identifie-comme-etant-l-homme-au-chapeau-grace-au-fbi-810388.aspx|title=Attentats à Bruxelles: Mohamed Abrini identifié comme étant "l'homme au chapeau" grâce au FBI|work=[[RTL (French radio)]]|date=15 April 2016|access-date=8 January 2019|language=fr|archive-date=9 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109013331/https://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/faits-divers/attentats-a-bruxelles-mohamed-abrini-identifie-comme-etant-l-homme-au-chapeau-grace-au-fbi-810388.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>

While the airport attackers were using the hideout in the Rue Max Roos in Schaerbeek, the metro attackers were using a hideout in the municipality of [[Etterbeek]] in the south-east of Brussels. Analysis of phone records had located them in the area on the morning of the attacks, but it was only after the arrest of Krayem on 8 April 2016 that police were given the address of a studio apartment in the avenue des Casernes. A search of the studio revealed little, as it had in the meantime been cleaned, but CCTV recording from the entrance hall of the block allowed investigators to track the movements of members of the Brussels cell who had stayed at or visited the address.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rtbf.be/article/proces-des-attentats-de-bruxelles-les-nombreux-allers-retours-des-accuses-dans-lappartement-de-la-rue-des-casernes-11137267|title=Procès des attentats de Bruxelles : les nombreux allers-retours des accusés dans l'appartement de la rue des Casernes|date=19 January 2023|work=RTBF|access-date=13 March 2023|archive-date=13 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313132317/https://www.rtbf.be/article/proces-des-attentats-de-bruxelles-les-nombreux-allers-retours-des-accuses-dans-lappartement-de-la-rue-des-casernes-11137267|url-status=live}}</ref>