Belgium charges two new suspects in Brussels attacks

Belgium has charged two new suspects with terrorist offences in connection with last month's deadly Brussels airport and metro attacks, the federal prosecutor's office said today.

A statement said “Smail F and Ibrahim F were charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders."

The prosecutor said there were "indications" that the two men could be linked to an address in the Avenue des Casernes in the Etterbeek district of Brussels which was raided last week.

At the time (of raid), the police had said they found nothing at the address, however, subsequent reports suggested that two men, one of whom later blew himself up in the Maalbeek metro station, may have stayed there or used it.

The second man, later identified by the authorities as Oasama K, was apparently also carrying a bomb but for reasons unknown did not go through with the attack.

Three suicide bombers — two at the airport and one at the metro station in central Brussels — killed 32 people in Belgium's worst terror attack which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for.

Investigators have found extensive links between the Brussels and November Paris attacks, with many of the same people involved and linked to IS in Syria.

During the weekend, the authorities said they believed the Brussels cell originally planned to stage another attack in France but the arrest of key Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam on March 18, followed by a massive of police raids, caused them to switch and target Belgium.

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