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 The federal prosecutor's office said six persons were held during
searches in the Brussels neighborhoods of Schaerbeek in the north
and Jette in the west, as well as in the center of the Belgian
capital. Public broadcaster RTBF said a seventh man was arrested in
the Forest borough of Brussels early on Friday.
Islamic State suicide bombers hit Brussels airport and a metro train
on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people and wounding some 270 in the
worst such attack in Belgian history.
The daily De Standaard said on Friday police had arrested a man who
was filmed by security cameras in the airport terminal next to two
bombers who blew themselves up there. Prosecutors did not confirm
the arrest and it was not known if the man was among the seven
detained overnight.
The attack in Brussels, home to the European Union and NATO, has
heightened security concerns around the world and raised questions
about EU states' ability to respond in an effective, coordinated way
to the Islamist militant threat.
U.S Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Brussels on Friday for
talks with Belgian and European Commission leaders to offer U.S.
assistance in security cooperation against terrorism.
The Islamic State militant group also took credit for coordinated
attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people at cafes, a
sports stadium and concert hall.
In Paris on Thursday, authorities arrested a French national
suspected of belonging to a militant network planning an attack in
France. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a televised
address that the arrest helped "foil a plot in France that was at an
advanced stage".
Cazeneuve added that the man arrested "is suspected of high-level
involvement in this plan. He was part of a terrorist network that
planned to strike France."
A French Interior Ministry wanted notice published by French media
named him as Reda Kriket and said he was urgently sought on
suspicion of terrorist conspiracy, warning he was armed and
dangerous. Kriket, 34, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in
prison in Belgium last July for recruiting Islamist fighters for
Syria.
After the arrest by the French counterterrorism service, DGSI, the
agency raided an apartment building in the northern Paris suburb of
Argenteuil. A police source said investigators found acetone
peroxide explosives in the apartment.
"At this stage, there is no tangible evidence that links this plot
to the attacks in Paris and Brussels," added Cazeneuve, who was in
the Belgian capital on Thursday for an emergency meeting of EU
interior and justice ministers.
RESIGNATION OFFERS
Belgium's interior and justice ministers offered to resign on
Thursday over a failure to track an Islamic State militant expelled
by Turkey as a suspected fighter and who blew himself up at Brussels
Airport.
 Brahim El Bakraoui was one of three identified suspected suicide
bombers who hit the airport and metro train. A fifth suspected
bomber filmed in the metro attack may be dead or alive. Bakraoui's
brother Khalid, 26, killed about 20 people at Maelbeek metro station
in the city center.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens
tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Charles Michel, who
asked them to stay on. "In time of war, you cannot leave the field,"
said Jambon, a right-wing Flemish nationalist.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Brahim El Bakraoui, 29, had
been expelled in July after being arrested near the Syrian border
and two officials said he had been deported a second time. Belgian
and Dutch police had been notified of Turkish suspicions that he was
a foreign fighter trying to reach Syria.
At the time, Belgian authorities replied that Bakraoui, who had
skipped parole after serving less than half of a nine-year sentence
for armed robbery, was a criminal but not a militant.
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"You can ask how it came about that someone was let out so early and
that we missed the chance to seize him when he was in Turkey. I
understand the questions," Jambon said. "In the circumstances, it
was right to take political responsibility and I offered my
resignation to the prime minister."
Geens said systems should be reviewed but noted that other countries
had been targeted, citing the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United
States in which he noted that "there were 3,000 dead."
JIHADIST NETWORK
Investigators are convinced the same Islamist jihadist network was
involved in the November Paris attacks.
Belgian public broadcaster VRT said investigators believed that
Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, arrested last Friday, probably
planned a similar shooting and suicide bomb attack in Brussels. The
news website Politico Europe said investigators had only questioned
Abdeslam for a single hour in the four days between his arrest on
March 19 and the Brussels bombings.
Belgian daily De Morgen said investigators had identified a new
suspect they believe played a role in the Brussels bombings, naming
him as 28-year-old Syrian Naim al-Hamed.
The paper said he was on a list circulated to the security services
of other European countries after Tuesday's attacks along with
Mohamed Abrini, Najim Laachraoui and Khalid El Bakraoui. Hamed was
also suspected of involvement in the Paris attacks, De Morgen said.
One man was killed in a shootout with police on March 15 that led to
the discovery of assault weapons and explosives and the arrest of
Abdeslam, 26, and another suspect on March 18.
Belgium on Thursday lowered its security alert level one notch to
three from the highest level, four, but officials did not say what
that would mean in terms of security measures that have included a
heavy police and military presence in Brussels.
Islamic State posted a video on social media calling the Brussels
blasts a victory and featuring the training of Belgian militants
suspected in the Paris attacks.
The lawyer for Abdeslam said the French national wanted to "explain
himself" and would no longer resist extradition to France.
Two sources familiar with the matter said the Bakraoui brothers had
been on U.S. government counterterrorism watch lists before the
attacks. But it was not clear how long they had been known to the
authorities.
Security sources told Belgian media the other suicide bomber at the
airport was Laachraoui, a veteran Belgian Islamist fighter in Syria
suspected of making explosive belts for November's Paris attacks.
(Additional reporting by Miriam Rivet, Geert De Clercq, Matthias
Blamont and John Irish in Paris, Philip Blenkinsop, Julia Fioretti,
Barbara Lewis, Bate Felix, Jan Strupczewski, Robin Emmott and
Jean-Baptiste Vey in Brussels; Writing by Peter Cooney and Paul
Taylor; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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