Belgian security forces had close contact in past months with a handful of the men suspected of carrying out the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday, raising questions about their ability to stop potential terrorists they've already identified.
The Washington Post reported that three of the men linked to the attacks appeared on a list of 800 Belgians with suspected terrorist ties: Bilal Hadfi and brothers Brahim and Salah Abdeslam. Belgian security forces had previously tapped the phone of Bilal Hadfi, as well as detained and interviewed at the two brothers.
Additionally, state prosecutors had been pursing alleged ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud — reportedly killed this week in a police raid — for taking his brother, 13, with him to join Islamic State militants in Syria.
"We always see in hindsight that people were known or followed," Guy Van Vlierden, a Belgian journalist tracking roughly 100 suspected Belgian extremists on social media. "Such things happen. In hindsight it is easy to say, but with the numbers that have to be followed, it’s impossible to watch them all."
Suicide bomber Bilal Hadfi, 20, drew attention to himself when he began expressing support for the terrorists who targeted the French offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine over its parodic cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed.
"He stopped listening to music, and he believed that women should be veiled if they didn’t want to be raped," said Sara Stacino, a former teacher at a Dutch-speaking high school.
Belgian authorities began tracking Hadfi, who traveled to Syria this spring.
Using an alias on Twitter, he began posting to the social network from Syria, referring to the Western coalition fighting the Islamic State as "infidels."
"They should no longer feel safe, not even in their dreams," he wrote in one tweet.
When Hadfi returned, the Justice Ministry said it began tapping his home phone in Molenbeek, a Brussels neighborhood heavily populated by Muslim immigrants from North Africa.
"But when he wasn’t found to be home, they had to stop the tapping, according to the legal requirements," said a ministry spokesperson.
Belgian federal police detained and questioned Brahim Abdeslam, 31, in February, after Turkish officials stopped him on his way to Syria. Brahim's brother, Salah, 26, was also questioned.
The authorities did not have enough evidence to charge them with a crime, so they were soon freed.
Brahim reportedly blew himself up on Paris' Rue Voltaire on Friday, and Salah became the subject of a manhunt.
In January, Belgian counterterrorism officials did find some success with a sweep that killed two suspected Islamist militants, and seized a number of weapons and forged IDs.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.