Islamic State’s online magazine, Dabiq, praises the attackers who killed 32 in Brussels last month, and hails two brothers who were suicide bombers in the attack as key actors in November’s bloodbath in Paris as well.
The group has claimed responsibility for both acts of carnage targeting Western European capitals.
“All preparations for the raids in Paris and Brussels started” with Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 30, and his brother Khalid, 27, Dabiq says. “These two brothers gathered the weapons and the explosives.”
It is “firstly due” to the El Bakraouis that the November 13 attacks that killed 130 victims in the French capital occurred, Dabiq says. Subsequently, it says, Khalid El Bakraoui had a dream “which motivated him to carry out another istishhadi (martyrdom) operation.”
The younger El Bakraoui blew himself up in a rush-hour Brussels subway train on March 22, killing 16 victims. That same morning, his older brother was one of two suicide bombers who detonated explosives-laden suitcases at Brussels Airport, killing another 16.
Dabiq also confirms Belgian and French police findings that Najim Laachraoui, the second Brussels Airport suicide bomber, manufactured the explosives used in both the Paris and Brussels attacks.
— AP
File: (Left to right) Khalid El Bakraoui, Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, who carried out the deadly suicide bombings in Brussels on March 22, 2016, in a photo distributed by Belgian authorities. (Belgian Federal Police)
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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
