Major World City Raises Terror Alert to Highest Level: Serious Attack is Imminent

21 Nov, 2015 by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

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Brussels is basically under martial law at the moment. They have intel on a credible terrorist threat – possibly multiple ones. At least one of the Paris attackers got away and fled to Brussels. A number of them were from there. Brussels has raised their alert level to the highest they have and they say an attack is imminent. The Daily Mail is reporting that the fugitive at large there has Skyped his brother who is begging him to turn himself in. Authorities across Europe, the Mideast and in Washington are trying to determine how a network of primarily French and Belgian attackers with links to Islamic extremists in Syria plotted and carried out the deadliest violence in France in decades – and how many may still be on the run. Americans are being told to shelter in place if you are in Brussels. I think I’d heed that warning.

From IJReview:

A week after the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris that killed at least 130 citizens, Brussels, Belgium raised its terror alert to level 4 today — the highest level — meaning a “serious and immediate threat” is possible.

Fox News quotes Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michael, who said the heightened alert is very credible:

“[It’s] based on quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris…where several individuals with arms and explosives launch actions, perhaps even in several places at the same time.”

Terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank told CNN that the Brussels lockdown is quite serious:

“[It] suggests they don’t have a handle on it, that they don’t know where these plotters are, or where they’re coming from.”

According to the BBC, Brussels has closed its metro until Sunday, and told citizens to avoid crowded areas in the city.

A soccer game in nearby Lokeren had to be cancelled because security could not be guaranteed, as law enforcement and military personnel are focused on Brussels.

ABC reports that the U.S. embassy in Brussels has told all Americans in the city “to shelter in place and remain at home.”

James Raynolds of the BBC writes directly from Brussels:

“Armed police officers patrol the station’s main concourse. One squad check passengers’ bags…Along one of the city’s main shopping streets, shops are open. Rows of security guards stand at the front doors…

Two well armed soldiers in camouflage uniform are standing a metre away from me just inside the front door [of a restaurant].”

The terrorist who allegedly devised the Paris attack, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was from Brussels.

People are being told to avoid large crowds. Brussels was home to the suspected organizer of the Nov. 13 terror attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Belgium has filed charges of “participation in terrorist attacks and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization” against three suspects relating to the Paris attacks. Heavily armed police and soldiers patrolled key intersections of the Belgian capital Saturday morning, a city of more than 1 million that is home to the headquarters of the European Union, the NATO alliance and officers of many multinational corporations. Residents were recommended to avoid gatherings, train stations, airports and commercial districts. Service was halted on the Brussels Metro, as well as on streetcar lines that run underground, and residents were urged to stay indoors. It is said that there could be as many as 60,000 radicalized Jihadists in Belgium. A new potential link emerged Saturday in Turkey, where authorities detained a suspected ISIS militant from Belgium who was believed in contact with the Paris attackers. Brussels is a very dangerous place to be today.