On 15 January 2015,

Belgian police Law enforcement in Belgium is conducted by an integrated police service structured on the federal and local levels, made up of the Federal Police and the Local Police. Both forces are autonomous and subordinate to different authorities, but link ...

carried out a raid on premises in

Verviers Verviers (; wa, Vervî) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. According to news sources, the raids were an

anti-terrorist Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

operation against Islamist radicals.

Operations

Two suspects died in the raids, which involved heavy gunfire, with a third being seriously wounded. Other operations were carried out in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and the nearby communes of

Schaerbeek (French and archaic Dutch, ) or (contemporary Dutch, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Etterbeek, Evere and S ...

Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (French, ) or ( Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, from which it is separated ...

Vilvoorde Vilvoorde (, french: Vilvorde ; historically known as ''Filford'' in English) is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the city of Vilvoorde proper with its two outlying quarters of Koningslo ...

, and

Zaventem Zaventem () is a Belgian municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant. It is located in the Dijleland area, one of the three large recreational areas which together form the '' Groene Gordel'' ("Green Belt") around the Brussels-Capital Region ...

. 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 Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

terrorist cell, reportedly believed to have links to

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

, 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.

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 via telephone from

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, who evaded capture in the Greek capital. A member of the

Brussels ISIL terror cell The Brussels ISIL terror cell were a group accused of involvement in large-scale terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 (130 killed) and Brussels in early 2016 (32 killed), as well as other attacks against European targets. The terror ce ...

, he later had a leading role in the November 2015 Paris attacks. 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