Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday in Ankara that authorities in his country detained and deported future Brussels bomber Ibrahim el Bakraoui, warning Belgian authorities that he could be a threat.
“Despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter, Belgium could not establish any links with terrorism,” Erdogan said. He did not specify exactly what intelligence led to this conclusion, but mentioned that he was detained at the Syrian border.
el Bakraoui, along with his brother Khalid, allegedly detonated the bombs that killed at least 31 people and injured 270 more in a metro station and airport in Brussels.
Despite these allegations from Erdogan, Belgian authorities maintain that though both el Bakraoui had criminal records, they were not actually associated with terrorism in any known capacity.
Turkey has suffered a number of attacks and bombings in recent times, including a deadly bomb that killed 37 in Ankara earlier this month. That attack was not claimed by ISIS, but by a splinter group of the Kurdistan Workers Party.
Source: The Independent.
Image: Twitter.
