Turkey Warned Belgium About Brussels Attacker: Erdogan

Ankara, 15 Jumadil Akhir 1437/ 24 March 2016 (MINA) – Turkey deported one of the attackers involved in Tuesday’s Brussels explosions back in June 2015, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Addressing a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Turkish capital Ankara Wednesday, Erdogan said Belgium was warned that the attacker captured in Turkey’s southeastern Gaziantep province in 2015 was a foreign militant.

“However, despite our warnings that this person is a foreign terrorist fighter, Belgium failed to detect the terrorist links of this person,” the Turkish president said, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Later, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources named the deported attacker as Ibrahim el-Bakroui.

At least 31 people were killed and more than 100 others were injured in multiple explosions at Zaventem airport and a metro station in Brussels Tuesday morning.

Belgian media identified two suspected suicide bombers at the airport blasts as brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakroui.

Erdogan said terrorism could only be overcome through political alliances across the world. “The world needs to redefine terror, terrorist and terrorism,” he said.

Iohannis agreed the response against terror threat must be both common and certain.

He said Turkey is an important partner for solving the EU’s many problems.

“Turkey hosts numerous refugees in its territories and it has a key role in controlling the flow of refugees, ending human trafficking and humanitarian assisstances,” he said.

“I welcome last week’s agreement with the EU and hope that it will help to decrease of the flow of refugees dramatically,” he added. (T/P010/R07)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)