Brussels Islamic State terror cell

The Brussels Islamic State terror cell was a sleeper cell of the Islamic State (IS), an Islamic jihadist terrorist organisation primarily based in Syria and Iraq. The IS sub-group was involved in large-scale attacks in Paris in November 2015, in which 130 people were killed, and Brussels in March 2016, in which 32 people were killed.

Background

On 13 November 2015, a group of ten IS terrorists carried out a series of coordinated attacks across the French capital, Paris; 130 people were killed in the attacks. Seven of the terrorists died during the attacks; two of the remaining three were tracked down five days later and killed in the 2015 Saint-Denis raid along with the woman who had provided them with a hideout. The tenth attacker failed to detonate his suicide vest and returned to the Belgian capital, Brussels.

The police manhunt for the tenth attacker and further accomplices led them to Brussels. Between 21 and 25 November, the city was placed in lockdown due to the threat of another terrorist attack. On 15 March 2016, the police raided a flat in the Brussels district of Forest, killing one terrorist whilst two others escaped. The two who escaped were arrested three days later on 18 March in the Molenbeek district of Brussels. A second major attack then took place on 22 March in Brussels in which coordinated bombings at the airport and at a metro station killed 32 people.