NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Brussels: Bombing all in the family

By Caroline Alexander
Bloomberg·
23 Mar, 2016 11:12 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Luggage carts are parked next to forensic officers in front of Zaventem Airport in Brussels. Photo / AP

Luggage carts are parked next to forensic officers in front of Zaventem Airport in Brussels. Photo / AP

The brothers identified as the Isis (Islamic State) bombers who attacked Brussels had a record of gang-related crimes in the Belgian capital and had been in touch with terrorists who struck Paris in November.

Surveillance footage showed two men dressed in black and a third in light-coloured clothing pushing luggage carts through Zaventem Airport before the explosions. Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said that the man in the middle of the trio, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, detonated explosives at the terminal and had been identified from his fingerprints. His brother Khalid attacked the Maelbeek metro station, Van Leeuw said. The bombings killed 31 people and injured 270.

Khalid, 27, and Ibrahim, 29, had criminal records, including for armed robbery and carjackings, but weren't wanted in relation to suspected terrorism offenses until security services raided an apartment in the Forest borough of Brussels last week, according to state broadcaster RTBF.

Khalid is thought to have rented the property under a false name, according to local media. There, police found a Kalashnikov rifle, an Isis flag and a book about radical Islam. They also recovered DNA from Salah Abdeslam, thought to be the sole surviving participant of the massacre in the French capital.

Abdeslam was arrested by Belgian police on March 19 after four months on the run. A member of the Paris attacks cell, Mohamed Belkaïd, was shot dead by a police sniper at the flat. The El Bakraoui brothers are believed to have fled.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It's not uncommon for brothers to carry out such attacks together. In fact, as security and intelligence agencies step up their monitoring of potential extremists, jihadist groups are increasingly looking to recruit family members, a move that makes it harder to detect and prevent radicalisation, according to a paper published last month by the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point.

"Kinship recruitment, which is difficult for security agencies to observe, is facilitated by several psychological mechanisms that bind individuals together on the path to extremism," the report's author, Mohammed Hafez, wrote. "Importantly, it deters ambivalent recruits from defecting to the authorities for fear of damaging their own valued relationships."

The bombing of the Boston marathon in 2013 was carried out by the Tsarnaev brothers, while Cherif and Said Kouachi attacked the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris last year. A husband-and-wife team was responsible for the San Bernardino mass shooting in December.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Tamerlan, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, brothers who planted bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Photo / AP
Tamerlan, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, brothers who planted bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Photo / AP

Ibrahim El Bakraoui was convicted in 2010 of firing a Kalashnikov rifle at police during an armed robbery, according to reports by RTBF. He wounded one of the officers and was sentenced to nine years in prison. It's not clear when he was released. Khalid was sentenced to five years on probation in 2011 for carjackings, the broadcaster said.

Neither Ibrahim nor his brother appear to have been active on social media, at least not under those names, and no clear picture of their path to radicalisation has emerged.

Van Leeuw, the Belgian prosecutor, said in the news conference police had recovered a message from a computer found in a garbage bin that suggested Ibrahim launched the airport attack as he knew authorities were closing in on him.

"I do not know what to do. I am on the run, people are looking for me everywhere. If I give myself up I will end up in a prison cell next to him," Ibrahim says in an apparent reference to Abdeslam.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Inquiry reveals Post Office scandal drove 13 people to suicide

08 Jul 08:20 PM
EntertainmentUpdated

A ’60s-flavored band blew up on Spotify. They are not actually real.

08 Jul 07:51 PM
World

Man dies after being sucked into plane engine at Italian airport

08 Jul 06:53 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Inquiry reveals Post Office scandal drove 13 people to suicide

Inquiry reveals Post Office scandal drove 13 people to suicide

08 Jul 08:20 PM

The faulty Horizon software led to wrongful prosecutions of sub-postmasters.

A ’60s-flavored band blew up on Spotify. They are not actually real.

A ’60s-flavored band blew up on Spotify. They are not actually real.

08 Jul 07:51 PM
Man dies after being sucked into plane engine at Italian airport

Man dies after being sucked into plane engine at Italian airport

08 Jul 06:53 PM
Texas floods claim over 100 lives, search for missing continues

Texas floods claim over 100 lives, search for missing continues

08 Jul 06:08 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP