Brussels Terrorist Attacks: 5 New Developments

POTUS speaks, a mystery suspect is arrested, and a survivor was also at the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013

Brussels Suspects Photos
Belgian Federal Police

A series of terrorist bombings killed 31 and wounded 270 in Brussels this week, in attacks subsequently claimed by ISIS, and information about the incident continued to flow on Wednesday morning.

News media scrambled to confirm reports of an arrest, President Obama continued to condemn the tragedy, and more information about the bombers was revealed, including one currently still on the run.

Here are five more of the latest developments available as authorities continue to investigate the attack in Belgium that has shaken the entire world.

Somebody was arrested this morning

Belgian media is reporting that an arrest was made in connection to yesterday’s terror attacks in Brussels.

The identity of the person arrested remains unclear, and media reports seem to be inconsistent thus far. CNN reported “a lot of forensic teams” going in and out of the building in which the raid occurred and loading what appeared to be evidence into police vehicles.

Belgian media withdrew reports that the man arrested was Najim Laachraoui, 24, described by European security officials as a suspected ISIS bomb maker, according to the NY Post.

The bombers were brothers

Belgium’s federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw identified Ibrahim El Barkoui as one of the airport suicide bombers and his brother, Khalid El Bakroui, as the man behind the deadly suicide blast near the Maelbeek metro station.

The third suspect, who is still reportedly on the run, left a bomb that malfunctioned and was eventually detonated it in a controlled explosion by authorities.

President Obama spoke about the attacks during his trip to Argentina

President Obama said Wednesday his administration would “continue to go after ISIL aggressively until it is removed from Syria, removed from Iraq, and finally destroyed.”

Speaking in Buenos Aires, Obama said defeating terrorists remains a “top priority of ours” in the wake of the Brussels’ attacks.

Americans, including a U.S. missionary, were injured

State department officials told CNN on Wednesday that “approximately a dozen” Americans were injured in the Brussels terror attack.

One of them, Utah native Mason Wells, was injured at Zaventem airport attack. He was there to drop someone off when the blasts occurred, according to CNN. Wells is expected to survive and was able to speak with him family shortly after the blast.

“You feel helpless. You feel scared because there is not a lot you can do,” his father told CNN.

Shockingly, Mason Wells was also at the Boston Marathon terror attack 

Surviving one terror attack is improbable enough for most people, but Wells has now survived two. When the Boston Marathon was attacked in 2013, Wells and his father were watching the conclusion of the race and only one block from the first bomb. Wells even conducted an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at the time.

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