Brussels airport following he attack.
Photo: Reuters
Israel-bound flight targeted by Brussels bombers
Mohamed Abrini, nicknamed ‘man in white’ or ‘man in hat’ due to the security camera footage circulated before he was arrested as one of the perpetrators of the terror attacks in Brussels, told his interrogators that one of the attackers’ targets was the waiting area for passengers flying to Tel Aviv.
It now appears that Israelis were a specific target of the Brussels terrorists,
as Mohamed Abrini, the attacker known as ‘man in white’ or ‘man in hat’ due to his appearance in security footage from before the deadly bombings (and who, unlike the other two attackers, did not die in the explosion at the Brussels airport), told interrogators that one of the terrorists’ specific targets at the Brussels airport was the outgoing lounge for passengers embarking to Tel-Aviv, according to reports by French television network BFM on Thursday.
Abrini, caught last weekend, said that fellow attacker Ibrahim El Bakraoui was the one who picked the targets at the airport: Waiting areas for flights to the United States, Russia, and Tel Aviv.
Apparently, the plan went awry when Abrini hesitated, and fled the scene after the two other attackers exploded. “I couldn’t hurt a fly,” he said during questioning. “I haven’t become an extremist and never visited Syria.”