Belgian interior min. admits neglect over Brussels bombings

BRUSSELS

Belgium’s Interior Minister Jan Jambon on Friday said his country "made a mistake" by not heeding Turkey’s warnings about Brussels metro station suicide bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui being a foreign fighter.

Jambon addressed the Belgian federal parliament with Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and Justice Minister Koens Geens over questions raised by an investigative committee on the ministers’ alleged neglect related to Tuesday’s Brussels bombings, which killed 31 people and injured 260.

"I cannot reach any other conclusion than one person acting negligent rather than the entire [police] organization," Jambon said on Friday.

"Someone within the police organization was negligent and was not proactive on an issue where we could have detected terrorism."

"It doesn’t require a terrorist expert to realize that he [Bakraoui] was a foreign fighter," Jambon added.

Jambon and Geens offered their respective resignations – rejected by Prime Minister Charles Michel – after reports emerged that Belgium had been warned about one of the suicide bombers.

A day after the blasts at an airport and metro station in Brussels, Turkish diplomatic sources revealed that suicide bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui had been deported from Turkey last June after being arrested near the Syrian border.

BRUSSELS

"I cannot reach any other conclusion than one person acting negligent rather than the entire [police] organization," Jambon said on Friday.

"Someone within the police organization was negligent and was not proactive on an issue where we could have detected terrorism."

"It doesn’t require a terrorist expert to realize that he [Bakraoui] was a foreign fighter," Jambon added.

Jambon and Geens offered their respective resignations – rejected by Prime Minister Charles Michel – after reports emerged that Belgium had been warned about one of the suicide bombers.