In a stunning new twist, the president of Turkey has revealed that his country last year arrested one of the ISIS suicide bombers that hit Brussels this week.
Ibrahim El Bakroui, who—along with his brother Khalid—blew himself up in Belgium’s capital, was detained by officials in Turkey, the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Bakroui was deported to Holland before being passed to Belgium, with Belgian authorities being warned that Bakroui had been radicalized.
Erdogan said Belgian authorities failed to confirm the suspect’s links to the terror group ISIS “despite our warnings that he was a foreign fighter,” reported the Anadolu Agency.
But Belgian officials said they were well aware of the Bakroui brothers, having swarmed a residence they were believed to be living in recently in an anti-terrorism raid.
Police managed to kill suspect Mohamed Belkaid but the brothers escaped.
The brothers and their associates then managed to find another place to stay.
Several days later, they blew themselves up at the Brussels airport and metro, killing 34 people and leaving more than 250 wounded.
Khalid had been on Interpol’s “red notice” list, alerting police forces around the world that he was wanted in Belgium on terrorism charges, reported the Daily Mail.
But Ibrahim seems to have gone under the radar, despite being on the run since breaching his parole last year.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2010 for shooting at Belgium police with a Kalashnikov rifle during a robbery.
Both moved around under aliases, and were ultimately able to carry out the devastating attacks.
A fourth man was captured by surveillance cameras at the airport and is now the subject of an international manhunt.
