Brussels (Archive)
Photo: Roee Nahmias
Belgian police detain 9 in anti-terrorism probe
Nine men arrested Friday in joint operation with France against terrorist cells believed to be linked to Islamist militants
Belgian police briefly detained nine men on Friday in a joint operation with France against suspected terrorist cells linked to Islamist militants, the federal prosecutor's office said.
Police held the men, whose identity was not revealed, for questioning after raiding their homes in Brussels and the towns of Verviers and Nivelles, seizing computers, books and other papers.
"They were released in the evening as for now there is not enough evidence for arrests. But this does not mean there is no case," said Lieve Pellens, the federal prosecutor's spokeswoman.
Pellens said there was no direct link with a Belgian woman who was recruited by radical Islamists to carry out a suicide attack in Iraq in 2005.
She declined to give further details other than that the Belgian operation was carried out in cooperation with French police investigating networks recruiting fighters for Iraq, including to become suicide bombers.
In the French probe, 11 people were arrested this week, including nine suspected of links with al-Qaeda.
French authorities said on Friday the network had been sending trainees to radical Islamic schools in Egypt before they went to Iraq.
