Paris bombmaker named as second terrorist at Brussels airport

Attacker named as Najim Laachraoui, who spent time in Syria; 3rd suspect who fled before detonating own device still on loose

A second suicide bomber who blew himself up at Brussels airport on Tuesday has been identified as Najim Laachraoui, Belgian police sources said Wednesday.

Belgian prosecutors earlier identified Ibrahim El Bakraoui as the other bomber, and said a third suspect whose bomb failed to go off was still being hunted.

Ibrahim’s brother Khalid carried out a suicide attack at the Maalbeek metro station in Tuesday’s coordinated attacks in the Belgian capital.

Moroccan-born Laachraoui’s DNA was found on explosives used in the November 13 Paris attacks as well as at an apartment in Brussels where bomb-making equipment and a fingerprint from Salah Abdeslam — prime suspect in the Paris attacks — had been found in December.

Laachraoui is believed to have made the suicide vests used in the Paris attacks, a French police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The blasts in Brussels occurred four days after Abdeslam’s arrest.

Prosecutors have said Laachraoui “traveled to Syria in February 2013,” and was registered under a false name at the border between Austria and Hungary last September.

He was traveling with Franco-Moroccan Abdeslam and Algerian Mohamed Belkaid, who was killed in a March 15 Brussels raid, three days before Abdeslam was captured.

Belkaid is believed to have provided logistical support to the Paris attackers.

French and Belgian authorities have said in recent days that the network behind the Paris attacks was much larger than initially thought — and developments this week suggest the same group could have staged both the Paris and Brussels attacks.

The airport and several Brussels metro stations remained closed Wednesday, and authorities said the airport would remain closed at least through Thursday, forcing the cancellation of 600 flights each day. Security forces stood guard around the neighborhood housing the headquarters of European Union institutions, as nervous Brussels residents began returning to school and work under a misty rain.

In the afternoon, thousands of people gathered at Place de la Bourse in the center of downtown Brussels — including dozens of students chanting “stop the war” — in solidarity with those killed.

“In Belgium, it’s not every day that we show solidarity politically,” said Fanny Nicaise, 24. She came out with some friends just to see and be with others. “It’s important that you aren’t alone in your sadness.”

Belgians paid homage and lit candles, the mood almost buoyant as people wrote on the ground with big sticks of chalk, drawing peace signs and hearts.

As befits an international city like Brussels, the foreign minister said the dead collectively held at least 40 nationalities.

“It’s a war that terrorism has declared not only on France and on Europe, but on the world,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Wednesday on Europe-1 radio. Valls, who planned to visit Brussels later Wednesday, urged tougher controls of the EU’s external borders.

“We must be able to face the extension of radical Islamism … that spreads in some of our neighborhoods and perverts our youth,” he said. The Paris attackers were mainly French and Belgian citizens of North African descent, some from neighborhoods that struggle with discrimination, unemployment and alienation.

In its claim of responsibility, the Islamic State group said its members detonated suicide vests both at the airport and in the subway, where many passengers fled to safety down dark tunnels filled with hazy smoke from the explosion. IS warned of further attacks, issuing a statement promising “dark days” for countries taking part in the US-led anti-IS coalition in Syria and Iraq.

European security officials have been bracing for a major attack for weeks and had warned that IS was actively preparing to strike.

Valls said Wednesday that big events, be they sports or cultural, must not be put on hold for fear of attacks. He said that includes the Euro2016 soccer tournament, a month-long event being held in France that starts in June. Meanwhile, the Belgian soccer federation agreed to move an international soccer friendly match to Portugal next week because of the attacks.