Belgian police arrested Thursday, May 4 seven people presented as "
fervent supporters
" of the Islamic State (IS) group and suspected of preparing an attack in Belgium, announced the Belgian federal prosecutor's office.
Nine searches were carried out in the west of the country, in particular in Roeselare, Ostend, Ghent and Menin, a town bordering France, leading to these arrests.
The suspects are "
mostly of Chechen origin
", and "
suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Belgium
".
"
Several scenarios have been discussed, the target of the planned attack has not yet been precisely determined
," added the prosecution in a statement.
The police operation, carried out with the reinforcement of special units of the federal police, is part of an investigation led by an anti-terrorism judge from West Flanders, who could decide to place the suspects in preventive detention after their hearing. .
An Islamic State target
“
The potential charges are attempted terrorist assassination, participation in the activities of a terrorist group and preparation for a terrorist attack
”, further indicates the prosecution.
"
Almost all
" of the suspects (among whom are women, according to a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor's office) are of Chechen origin and three of them "
also have Belgian nationality
".
They "
belong to a group of fervent supporters of IS
", the same source points out.
Belgium has already been the target of the Islamic State group, which in 2016 claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks perpetrated at the airport and in the metro in the Belgian capital (32 dead on March 22, 2016).
These attacks had been committed by the jihadist cell of the IS already at the origin of those committed on November 13, 2015 in France (130 dead).
