On 15 January 2015, Belgian police carried out a raid on premises in Verviers, Belgium. According to news sources, the raids were an anti-terrorist operation against Islamist

radicals Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

Operations

Two suspects died in the raids, which involved heavy gunfire, with a third being seriously wounded. Other operations were carried out in Brussels and the nearby communes of Schaerbeek, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Vilvoorde, and Zaventem. An armed man was reported to have been arrested in Brussels. The Belgian prosecutor's office stated that the raids were an operation against a jihadist terrorist cell, reportedly believed to have links to ISIS, on the verge of committing a terrorist attack. Police are investigating the possibility of links to the ''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting in neighbouring France. The men killed in the raid, Redouane Hagaoui and Tarik Jadaoun, were alleged by police to have been planning to attack sellers of the "survivors' issue" of ''Charlie Hebdo'' released following the attack in Paris.

Response

On 17 January 2015, the Belgian government began a deployment of troops throughout Belgium to defend potential terrorist targets,

Operation Vigilant Guardian Operation Vigilant Guardian was a Belgian army operation following the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks and the dismantling of a terrorist cell in Verviers having foiled attacks imminent, to deal with the terrorist threat and protect the "points ...

Verviers terror cell trial

A trial against 16 members of the terrorist cell dismantled in Verviers began in 2016. Nine of the defendants were still at large and tried ''in absentia'', including two Belgian, five French, one Moroccan and one Dutch national, who were thought to be fighting for the ISIL in Syria, to be in hiding or to be deceased. Belgian police said the group was on the verge of a coordinated attack of killing police officers in public roads and in police stations, and police had found "Kalashnikov assault rifles, explosives, ammunition and communications equipment – along with police uniforms that could have been used for the plot" during the raids. The cell was found to have been led by

Abdelhamid Abaaoud Abdelhamid Abaaoud ( ar, عبد الحميد ابعود, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ʾAbā ʿŪd; 8 April 1987 – 18 November 2015) was a Belgian-born Islamic terrorist who had spent time in Syria. He was suspected of having organized multiple terror a ...

via telephone from Athens, who evaded capture in the Greek capital. A member of the Brussels ISIL terror cell, he later had a leading role in the

November 2015 Paris attacks The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bombers ...

. In 2016, members of the cell were sentenced to between 8 and 16 years imprisonment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verviers police raid, 2015 2015 in Brussels Attacks in Europe in 2015 Counterterrorism in Belgium Deaths by firearm in Belgium Islamic terrorism in Belgium January 2015 events in Europe January 2015 Île-de-France attacks History of Liège Province Police raids on Islamists Terrorist incidents in Belgium in 2015 Verviers

Operations

Response

Verviers terror cell trial

See also

References