Police scuffle with protesters at Brussels bomb shrine

A Brussels square that has been a memorial site turned agitated on Sunday when black-clad men started shouting slogans and carrying a banner with an expletive against the Islamic State group.

Hundreds of people were remembering the 28 victims of Tuesday’s attacks when dozens of men, some in balaclavas and the Guy Fawkes masks associated with the Anonymous group, barged into the center of Place de la Bourse and mounted the steps of the stock exchange building.

Riot squads joined plainclothes policemen to move the protesters away from the square. A water cannon sprayed the protesters.

The protesters were described as “far-right soccer hooligans.”

The anti-IS rally came despite government appeals not to hold a so-called “March Against Fear” Sunday in Brussels since the security forces were stretched too thinly to provide security in the wake of Tuesday’s triple bombing on the city’s airport and metro system, which left 28 people dead and 370 injured.

“Not in the name of Islam,” read one banner on the columns of the stately former stock exchange building in Brussels city center where people, some tearful, milled around under the watchful gaze of heavily armed police and soldiers.

“This is our home” and “The state, Daesh accomplice” around 200 hooligans chanted, using an alternate term for IS, as they gathered near the square, which has been covered in flowers, candles and messages by mourners.

Police urged the mourners, who included some Muslims, not to provoke the hooligans, but some joined in chanting “Fascists! Fascists! We’re not having it!”

Riot police with helmets and shields corralled the hooligans before dispersing them with high power water jets, and marshaling them onto trains out of the city, AFP journalists witnessed.

Around 10 people were arrested, police told AFP.

Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said police had done “nothing” to stop the hooligans coming to Brussels despite having advance warning, adding that he was “appalled” that “such thugs have come to provoke residents at the site of their memorial.”

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said he “emphatically” condemned the demonstration.

Many at the site, though, came simply to pay respects.

“This is our dream,” read a banner among a sea of flags from all over the world, as the carpet of flowers, candles and messages grew steadily larger.

“I come here every evening and stay here until midnight in a gesture of solidarity,” said Mohamed Said Si Ahmed Haddi, 50, a Belgian from Algeria. “We must not hide away.”

In a homily at the nearby medieval cathedral of Saints-Michel-et-Gudule, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Malines-Brussels Jozef de Kesel said the attacks “defy understanding.”

“We are confronted with evil on an unimaginable scale which causes so much innocent and useless suffering,” the Belga news agency quoted de Kesel as saying.

“Easter celebrates victory over evil,” he added.

As Belgium tries to come to terms with the tragedy, recriminations continue over whether the authorities could and should have done more to prevent the carnage as the links with the Paris massacre grow clearer by the day.

Prosecutors said Sunday they had charged a second man with involvement in a terror group over a foiled plot to strike France.

It was the latest piece in the puzzle of the jihadist networks straddling France and Belgium.

The suspect, Abderamane A., was the second person to be charged by Brussels prosecutors in as many days in connection with Thursday’s arrest of a man in Paris who had assault weapons and explosives in his flat and who was allegedly plotting a new attack in France.

Overnight, Italian police arrested an Algerian national in connection with the production of fake ID documents used by the Paris and Brussels attackers, suggesting their networks spread far and wide and will not be easy to dismantle.

On Saturday, a man widely thought to be the fugitive third bomber from the airport was charged in Brussels with terrorist murder and participation in a terrorist group. He was the first suspect to be formally charged over Tuesday’s attacks.

Federal prosecutors identified the man, who was arrested on Thursday, as Faycal C, with a source close to the inquiry giving his full name as Faycal Cheffou.

There has been intense speculation he is the man wearing a dark hat and light-colored jacket seen in airport surveillance footage alongside Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui who blew themselves up.

A source close to the inquiry told AFP: “That is a hypothesis the investigators are working on.”

Brussels Airport meanwhile said an examination of the building housing the wrecked departure hall showed the structure was stable and authorities will now see if temporary check-in desks can be installed.

It had earlier said it would not reopen before Tuesday, with a partial resumption of passenger services, as it repaired the damage and put in place new security measures.

Ministers insist they did everything possible to prevent Tuesday’s attacks and track down a network also linked to the Paris attacks but the government has faced a torrent of criticism for failing to stop young Belgian fighters going to Syria.

Two senior ministers offered to resign after it emerged airport bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui had been deported from Turkey as a “terrorist fighter.”

“It is an endless nightmare for a country turned upside down,” said the Le Soir daily in a front-page editorial.

It was a sharp change of tone from a week ago when it hailed the March 18 arrest in central Brussels of key Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam.