sharkyvilla Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Sounds like another explosion at a metro station too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Metro Station explosion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Any more on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted March 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 22, 2016 Double figure fatalities at the airport, 2 check in desks targeted and some reports shots fired beforehand. The Metro system is completely shutdown as well now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 From what I've seen 3 metro bombs "near" the EU building Airport attack was the American airlines desk Hard to confirm any of that, Twitter is full of guff, token "they were heard shouting Arabic" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Shit [emoji20] Can I ask why Belgium is such a target? Is it because of the EU HQ because the nation itself doesn't seem to be overly involved in war on IS etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Just now, Wainy316 said: Shit Can I ask why Belgium is such a target? Is it because of the EU HQ because the nation itself doesn't seem to be overly involved in war on IS etc At a guess, it could be somewhat down to the attackers being more able to achieve their goals in somewhere like Belgium, compared to the UK or Germany for example, whilst still giving them a high-profile, European target. I remember reading something about the Paris attacks how the French security services were far behind the likes of Mi-5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 There was a load of police raids there last week, the guys behind the Paris attack are thought to be hiding in Belgium (my basic understanding from having the news on in the background) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amsterdam_Neil_D Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 8 minutes ago, Wainy316 said: Shit Can I ask why Belgium is such a target? Is it because of the EU HQ because the nation itself doesn't seem to be overly involved in war on IS etc It has a lot to do with Belgium and specifically Brussels has the highest amount of jihadist's in western Europe afaik. These have been to Syria and come back again and they let them back in. The objective is to get these people out of the country and then refuse entry back in, this is what happens when you have open boarders, people die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted March 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 22, 2016 Live thread Just remember that reports are not always facts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted March 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 22, 2016 Yup I think the guy behind the Paris attacks was very nearly caught in Brussels but managed to escape after a firefight. IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Yeah I guess that's where a lot of the brains (if you can call them that) behind European operations are based. Hope it's not in revenge for the arrest of that guy the other day, wouldn't like to think they can act that quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said: this is what happens when you have open boarders, people die I think you'll find that people die anyway and, in the history of Europe, when borders are closed, fenced off and fought over, people end up dying in very great numbers. Edited March 22, 2016 by snowychap 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted March 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 22, 2016 Did they catch the bloke behind the Paris attacks then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larscapaldi Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 4 minutes ago, PieFacE said: Yup I think the guy behind the Paris attacks was very nearly caught in Brussels but managed to escape after a firefight. IIRC. He didn't manage to escape. They shot him in the knee and got him, so I assume the bombings here now are some kind of revenge 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted March 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 22, 2016 Just now, Larscapaldi said: He didn't manage to escape. They shot him in the knee and got him, so I assume the bombings here now are some kind of revenge Ah fair enough, I must have misread / misheard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted March 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 22, 2016 10 minutes ago, Wainy316 said: Shit Can I ask why Belgium is such a target? Is it because of the EU HQ because the nation itself doesn't seem to be overly involved in war on IS etc Combination of things. Belgium is a small country, large parts of it are quite poor by expected standards, and it has developed ghetto-ised areas as it has historically had a fair amount of migration. That's a melting pot for extremism to grow, poor disenfranchised young men remote from wider society. It also has easy connections to France and Germany, the former of which has its own problems of a similar sort to Belgium (and combines that with its history in North Africa and elements of the Middle East) which don't end at the border, which makes Belgium an easy staging point. Then you add that the Belgian security forces aren't as good as some other nations, and it's a mess. This will get worse before it gets better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amsterdam_Neil_D Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 3 minutes ago, snowychap said: I think you'll find that people die anyway and, in the history of Europe, when borders are closed, fenced off and fought over, people end up dying in very great numbers. European external boarders, not internal. People who fight in Syria cannot be let in under any circumstances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted March 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted March 22, 2016 1 minute ago, PieFacE said: Ah fair enough, I must have misread / misheard. The mastermind behind Paris had been dead for ages. The guy they were after was the logistics man who at the last minute decided not to blow himself up and went on the run. He didn't go very far though - he holed up in the same borough he was from, which also was connected to many of his accomplices, and it took them 4 months to find him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Just now, Amsterdam_Neil_D said: European external boarders, not internal. European external borders aren't open borders, are they? Unless you're suggesting building a physical wall/fence along the entire perimeter of the EU? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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