Police arrest 21; Paris fugitive still at large
BRUSSELS — Belgian police launched more raids in Brussels and beyond today, detaining five more people as they continued their hunt for a fugitive suspect in the Paris attacks.
In Paris, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he will ask for parliamentary approval for the U.K. to join airstrikes against Islamic State extremists in Syria.
The raids began late Sunday, capping a tense weekend that saw hundreds of troops patrolling and authorities hunting for one or more suspected extremists including Salah Abdeslam, a fugitive since being named a suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks. Between Sunday night and midday today, 21 people were detained.
The Belgian government kept the capital on the highest state of alert in the face of what it described as a “serious and imminent” threat, preventing a return to normal in the city that is also host to the European Union's main institutions.
Federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said 19 raids were carried out Sunday in Molenbeek, home to many of the Paris attackers, and other boroughs of Brussels, and three raids were carried out in Charleroi. Abdeslam was not among those arrested. Van Der Sypt said no firearms or explosives were found.
Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said Abdeslam “must have a lot of support on our territory. That's why all these searches being conducted at the moment are important.”
Police fired two shots at a car that approached them as they searched a snack bar in Molenbeek, Van Der Sypt said. The vehicle escaped but was stopped later in Brussels, and a wounded person inside was arrested. It was not immediately known if the person was linked to the investigation into the Paris attacks.
Cameron and French President Francois Hollande, meeting in Paris, paid a quiet visit to the Bataclan concert venue, which saw the worst of the carnage in Paris. Hollande plans to meet later this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkeld and then U.S. President Barack Obama in pursuit of a unified strategy in Syria.
Britain has been carrying out airstrikes in Iraq, but Cameron has long wished for an expanded mandate to include targets in Syria. But having lost a vote once two years ago, his government had been reluctant to even suggest a vote until it could be certain it would win.
Belgian authorities said more raids today in Brussels and eastern Liege yielded five more detentions.
The federal prosecutor said in a statement that a BMW sighting near Liege that had been rumored to contain Abdeslam had no links with the ongoing investigation.
Several of the Paris attackers had lived in Brussels, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the plot's orchestrator who was killed Wednesday in a standoff with French police.
