Thursday, March 24, 2016

Report: Israel warned Belgium about airport attack


Brussels Airport
Brussels Airport
Reuters
Israel was among those who warned Belgium ahead of the terrorist attack at the Zaventem airport in Brussels, Channel 2 News reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, Israel provided Belgium with concrete information on security breaches at the airport, where the first of two attacks on the Belgian capital took place on Tuesday, and claimed that "there are serious security deficiencies at the airport in Brussels".

The warnings reportedly came from Israeli security officials who are responsible to check airports across Europe in which flights to and from Israel depart and land. Those officials identified the security-related issues at the Zaventem airport and updated the Belgians about them.

The Channel 2 News follows a report in Haaretz earlier which said that Belgian intelligence services received specific warnings ahead of Tuesday's attacks but failed to properly investigate them.

According to Haaretz, the intelligence centers in Brussels, as well as in other Western countries, knew that terrorists would strike the Zaventem airport and, probably, the city's railway in the near future.
However, the newspaper said, they did not properly appreciate the imminent threat and the limited follow-up investigation was insufficient to avoid the tragedy.

Also on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had warned Belgium about Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the two suicide bombers at the airport, but Belgium failed to act on the warnings.