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March 22 -- Guy Trouveroy, Belgian ambassador to the U.K., talks about what seems to make Belgium a hub of terrorist activity in Europe. Bloomberg
Emergency workers and police at Rue de la Loi, after an explosion at Malbeek Metro station, Brussels, Belgium, March 22, 2016.(Photo: OLIVIER HOSLET, EPA)
The Belgian<span style="color: Red;">*</span>capital is no stranger to associations with terror, with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>tensions heightened<span style="color: Red;">*</span>following the devastating attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people.
Explosions at Brussels' airport and at a downtown<span style="color: Red;">*</span>metro stop<span style="color: Red;">*</span>caused killed at least 26 people and wounded scores of others on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Tuesday. Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed that the explosions<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at the airport were a suicide attack.
The blasts<span style="color: Red;">*</span>came days after terrorism police raided an apartment in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, leading to the arrest Friday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Salah<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Abdeslam, a suspect in the Paris attacks on the run for four months, and two other suspects.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Abdeslam<span style="color: Red;">*</span>went on the run after terrorists launched the attacks<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at cafes,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a rock concert and a stadium in the French capital. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed responsibility.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Several of the Paris attackers lived in the neighborhood and police have carried out regular raids there in the aftermath of the assaults.
USA TODAY
Explosions rock Brussels airport, metro station
On March 15, Brussels police said a suspect<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was killed during an anti-terror raid on a home in the southern suburb of Forest and at least one gunman was on the run. AFP said the raid was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>aimed at people connected to one or several of the 11 Belgians who were charged in the Paris attacks.
USA TODAY
Brussels neighborhood seen as jihadist breeding ground
In December, investigators<span style="color: Red;">*</span>found Abdeslam’s fingerprint as well as three belts that could be used to carry explosives<span style="color: Red;">*</span>during a search of an apartment in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Schaerbeek neighborhood of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Brussels. Belgian officials said it was likely used as a bomb factory in the Paris attacks and as a hideout by Abdeslam.
Authorities appear to have focused<span style="color: Red;">*</span>predominantly<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Molenbeek, an inner-city suburb in Brussels which<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has long been linked to terror, and been portrayed as a jihadist breeding ground.
A man who was subdued as he apparently prepared to open fire on passengers on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris in August was reported to have stayed in the neighborhood before boarding the train in Brussels.
The suspect in a shooting that killed four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014 also stayed there, and so did the members of a suspected ISIL terror cell in the eastern city of Verviers in January 2015, according to media reports.
One of the members of the group behind the train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 in 2004 was also from Molenbeek.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon pledged to “clean up Molenbeek” after the Paris attacks.
Belgium has per capita the highest number of citizens in Europe traveling to fight in places such as in Syria and Iraq, according to a United Nations working group on the use of mercenaries. It<span style="color: Red;">*</span>estimated that 500 Belgians have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>left the country to fight.
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