Possible terrorist attacks in Brussels

An explosion has occurred at a subway station in Molenbeek, Brussels, according to CNN affiliate RTL. The station is near the European quarter.

[Breaking news update, posted at 4:39 a.m. ET]

All metro stations in Brussels, Belgium, have been closed following a pair of explosions at the city's airport, according to the official Twitter account for the city's transportation agency.

[Previous story, posted at 4:36 a.m. ET]

(CNN) -- Two explosions occurred at the airport in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday.

Several people were killed, according to the country's public broadcaster, RTBF. Initial reports say up to 10 people were killed and more than 30 people were injured

Seems like a coordinated attack similar to the Paris attacks not too far in the past,. Ironically, this comes after the apprehension of Salah Abdslam wanted to commit more terrorist attacks?

Do you think the Religion of peace strike again here?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/europe/brussels-explosions/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/paris-attack-suspect-wanted-restart-article-1.2570950

Almost definitely the Religion of Peace(tm) at it again. We'll know soon enough.

I think it more likely to be the death-cult known as Isis rather than any religion associated with peace, honestly (fun fact: Isis hates other muslims a ton).

Anyway, my heart goes out to those injured and killed, and I *also* hope unrelated people don't get scapegoated for it.

Awful news, I learned about this because I work at web monitoring so it has been slowly but implicitly presented to me 🙁

My prayers for them in these trying times.

Death count unclear at this point. BBC have changed their heading from '13 dead' to 'many dead'. The Belgian PM is quoted as talking of 'scores' of dead, but as he also said 'scores' of injured, this might all be a mix up. It's going up though.

Some relevant analysis (from the BBC):

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The information we have so far suggests the bombings at Brussels airport happened before any security checks, in the public drop-off area. So it doesn't look like a security lapse at the scanning area.

There is a limit to what you can do at airports to stop this sort of attack. Prevention is more reliant on getting intelligence beforehand. American Airlines has told us they were not the nearest check-in desk.

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BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says it is "not a surprise" that this attack has taken place but says it is "shocking it was so successful".

He said since the Since Charlie Hebo attacks in Paris in January last year, which killed 12 people, there had been a number of terror cells "on the loose" that had been inspired by so-called Islamic State and had access to weapons and explosives.

He said Belgian intelligence services had been playing "catch-up" since then and did not have a "very good system" of sharing information across the various authorities.

He said attacks in Britain had been prevented by Muslim communities reporting suspicious behaviour to police but this was not yet happening in Belgium.

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That last one is interesting- I had thought before that in the UK we hadn't got very far with getting insider relations with the Muslim community- programmes like PREVENT, which is the anti-terror outreach programme, had received a lot of criticism.

But now I am hearing that it;s paying off and Muslims are speaking out against their extremists. That's good to hear and that's very relevant in these times of high racial tensions- demonising the entire Muslim community causes them to shut up, not help out.

Originally posted by Q99
I think it more likely to be the death-cult known as Isis rather than any religion associated with peace, honestly (fun fact: Isis hates other muslims a ton).

Anyway, my heart goes out to those injured and killed, and I *also* hope unrelated people don't get scapegoated for it.

Well said.

I know this is obvious, but someone has to make the relevant analysis. Also from BBC.

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The Brussels attacks bear the hallmark of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, according to Belgian jihadist analyst Pieter Van Ostaeyen.

He told Belgium's Het Nieuwsblad newspaper he was surprised by the nature of the operation: "I had expected that something would happen but not on this scale. This is really highly coordinated," he said.

Mr Van Ostaeyen said the attacks were most likely a response to the counter-terror operation in Brussels last week and that they were probably "pulled together at very short notice".

Well, the short notice thing doesn't seem obvious. And is worrying. On the other hand perhaps it makes sense that particular short planning stages have a chance to be successful as they may be less likely to be caught.

Death count up to 28 by recent reports.

Most of my family lives in Brussels, so far no bad news...

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Most of my family lives in Brussels, so far no bad news...

Glad to hear that!

Originally posted by carthage
Seems like a coordinated attack similar to the Paris attacks not too far in the past,. Ironically, this comes after the apprehension of Salah Abdslam wanted to commit more terrorist attacks?

Do you think the Religion of peace strike again here?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/europe/brussels-explosions/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/paris-attack-suspect-wanted-restart-article-1.2570950

The Religion of Peace was aiding and abetting these criminals in the ghetto's of Brussels, area's where cops are not allowed to go.

Just another example of how Islam is allowed to spread and continue to conduct terror and indirect terror on our world today. The people that still support Islam will die just the same as the people who do not.

Originally posted by Q99
I think it more likely to be the death-cult known as Isis rather than any religion associated with peace, honestly (fun fact: Isis hates other muslims a ton).

Anyway, my heart goes out to those injured and killed, and I *also* hope unrelated people don't get scapegoated for it.

Pew research says this is not limited to ISIS.

http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/

Originally posted by Q99
I think it more likely to be the death-cult known as Isis rather than any religion associated with peace, honestly (fun fact: Isis hates other muslims a ton).

Anyway, my heart goes out to those injured and killed, and I *also* hope unrelated people don't get scapegoated for it.

No, no it was probably Muslims. Spoiler warning, ISIS is Islamic. Stop ****ing apologizing for these people. Stop trying to defend them. From one liberal to another, own up to the goddamn ****ing fact that some of these Muslims, happen to be violent murderers who need to eat a bullet.

radical islamic terrorists at it again?

nooo way

Originally posted by Q99
I think it more likely to be the death-cult known as Isis rather than any religion associated with peace, honestly (fun fact: Isis hates other muslims a ton).

Anyway, my heart goes out to those injured and killed, and I *also* hope unrelated people don't get scapegoated for it.

This is has nothing to do with a religious group..this is the cause of the death cult known as the ISLAMIC state of Iraq and Syria.

Makes perfect sense.

On the radio some people were saying this was revenge for the recent capture of that one terrorist.

3 Americans dead at the American Airlines ticket counter who were coming home.

Originally posted by Lucius
No, no it was probably Muslims. Spoiler warning, ISIS is Islamic. Stop ****ing apologizing for these people. Stop trying to defend them. From one liberal to another, own up to the goddamn ****ing fact that some of these Muslims, happen to be violent murderers who need to eat a bullet.

Originally posted by Surtur
On the radio some people were saying this was revenge for the recent capture of that one terrorist.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
I don't think Q was defending ISIS. Q was saying there's always a danger of people not distinguishing between ISIS and Muslims in general.

Again Pew Reseach debunks this claim. And people who think like this are the ones that enable ISIS, including Q99.