Belgium names suicide bombers

Belgium held a minute’s silence at midday (11:00 GMT) yesterday.

Belgium’s king and queen visited the airport and met some of the 260 injured in the hospital.

The black glove-wearing suicide bombers, who killed 14 people and maimed more than 100 at a Brussels airport, have been named as Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui.

The third man seen wheeling heavy bags into the airport, wearing a goatee, spectacles and fishing hat, was named by intelligence sources as Najim Laachraoui, a 24-year-old suspected ISIS commander, who reportedly made the bombs used in the Paris outrage last November.

Laachraoui was identified by his DNA found at several hideouts used by the November Paris attackers, as well as on explosive materials used during the November attacks on Paris. There has been massive manhunt in Belgium as police search for a suspected terrorist believed to have escaped the Brussels bombings after the explosives he was carrying did not detonate. Raids continued across the city yesterday.

According to reports, a taxi driver came forward after recognising CCTV images of the three suspects as men he picked up from an apartment block and dropped off at the airport.

Belgian police led a raid on the apartment block in Schaerbeek, where they discovered an explosive device filled with nails, as well as an ISIS flag and chemicals.

The driver remembered the men had too much luggage to fit into his vehicle and were forced to leave some behind, a Belgian news outlet reported. The driver was also not allowed to assist the bombers in unloading luggage upon arrival at the airport.

Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, is suspected to have rented a house under a false name in the Forest suburb of Brussels which was raided by police last week in connection with the Paris attacks.

Mohamed Belkaid, a key member of the Paris plot, who had accompanied Salah Abdeslam on a trip to Hungary and who transferred cash to the plot’s mastermind, was killed in earlier raid. An ISIS flag was found next to him. Two other suspects escaped.