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UP FRONT A3
Monday 23 November 2015

Belgium police arrest 16, Paris fugitive still at large

RAF CASERT els, the rest of the country and the downing of the Police stand near a barricade during an operation in the center
FRANK JORDANS remains on a Level 3 alert, Russian jetliner carrying 224 of Brussels on Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015. Belgian prosecutors an-
Associated Press meaning an attack is “pos- people in Egypt’s Sinai Pen- nounced early Monday that police had detained 16 people in
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian sible and likely.” insula. All happened within 22 raids but that Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslam was not among
prosecutors announced “Nobody is pleased with the past month. them.
early Monday that police such a situation. Neither “We will not accept the
had detained 16 people in are we. But we have to idea that terrorist assaults (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
22 raids but that Paris fugi- take our responsibility,” Mi- on restaurants and the-
tive Salah Abdeslam was chel said. aters and hotels are the
not among them. Western leaders stepped new normal, or that we are
Federal prosecutor Eric up the rhetoric against the powerless to stop them,”
Van Der Sypt said that “no Islamic State group, which President Barack Obama
fire arms or explosives were has claimed responsibil- said in Kuala Lumpur, Ma-
discovered,” in the raids — ity for the attacks in Paris laysia.
19 in Brussels and the three that killed 130 people and French Defense Minister
in Charleroi in the country’s wounded hundreds more; Jean-Yves Le Drian said IS
south. One of those de- the suicide bombings in must be destroyed at all
tained was injured when a Beirut that killed 43 people costs.q
car he was in tried to ram and injured more than 200;
police during an attempt-
ed getaway.
“The investigation contin-
ues,” he said.
The raids capped a tense
day with hundreds of
troops patrolling and au-
thorities hunting for one or
more suspected militants,
the Belgian government
chose Sunday to keep the
capital on the highest state
of alert into the start of the
workweek to prevent a
Paris-style attack.
Citing a “serious and im-
minent” threat, Prime Min-
ister Charles Michel an-
nounced that schools and
universities in Brussels will
be closed Monday, with
the subway remaining shut
down, preventing a return
to normal in the city that is
also home to the European
Union’s main institutions.
“We fear an attack like
in Paris, with several indi-
viduals, perhaps in several
places,” Michel said after
chairing a meeting of Bel-
gium’s National Security
Council.
While Brussels was kept on
the highest of four alert lev-