http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35846954
In the event you followed the Paris massacres, you might be interested to know that Abdesalam was arrested today after narrowly escaping 2 days ago. He returned to his commune of Molenbeek to seek shelter with fellow jihadists but ended up being trapped. He appears to have been hiding among friends for the past months and finally did run out of options.
Brussels remains a nest of extremists.
Going back to the neighborhood he grew up in was a mistake for him but I suspect his resources were limited. Glad he was captured.
Isn’t he the one whose brother went on TV saying our family knew nothing. News said he was caught living in an apartment a few yards from his parents.
His direct family would not have been able to provide any assistance, let alone be willing to. On the other hand, the fugitive could rely on a vast network of supporters in and around Brussels. He used this network to move around safe houses under the benevolent eye of many locals.
There is a released video that shows neighbors yelling “oh no, oh no, they shot him. They killed him” with an obvious disagreeing tone. Simply stated, thousands of people were willing to help and support him.
In the end his mistake was not to return to Molenbeek -a part of Brussels that is as closed to police forces as they come- but to call a friend who was under active surveillance. The police did not make the same mistake they did Tuesday and blocked the entire neighborhood with massive forces.
Catching him alive is a real coup.
I saw an interview on BBC with a neighbor who said she couldn’t sleep after she realised that he lived in the building next to her and her children. This is like a nightmare come alive: the apartment down the hall was hiding a serial killer…
Very glad. Now try him and show his comrades in arms that their is fair and substantial justice in the west; you will not go unpunished.
“There” not their.
Europe is a real melting pot and the rhetoric over here is we don’t want “them” near us which is easier said than done. The people who were sad this guy was caught must be very angry about something. That seems to be the norm now … everyone is angry about something and uses that anger to justify pretty much anything.
Not entirely related to this thread , but my husband is on a business trip in Italy ( he is European by birth ) He was very sad to see that it has now become necessary for their army to guard churches and historical landmarks with machine guns .
I’ve been to Italy several times over the past 20 years and I’ve always seen machine guns but perhaps its been ramped up even more becoming more prevalent and obvious.