LONDON – The Brussels airport bombers were planning to target nuclear power stations in Belgium but were pressured into accelerating and changing plans after the arrest of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam, Belgium’s Dernier Heure daily reported on Thursday.
The two brothers behind Tuesday’s Brussels airport bombing, which killed some 35 people and wounded 300, were monitoring the movements of the director of Belgium’s nuclear program, the newspaper said.
It said the two brothers – Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui who died in the suicide attacks -- had placed a camera outside the nuclear chief’s home.
The daily said that dozens of hours of footage about the nuclear official’s movements were found in police raids on accomplices from the same terror cell.
Investigators say that DNA evidence showed the Brussels bombings and the November 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people were linked.
After the arrest of Abdeslam in Belgium last Friday, the two brothers apparently feared being exposed and hunted down.
Belgian media said that Ibrahim El Bakraoui had left a note on a computer found in a trash can during an anti-terrorist raid, reportedly saying he felt increasingly unsafe and feared arrest and prison.
Dernier Heure quoted investigators as saying that the goal of the attackers had been to “jeapordize national security like never before” in Europe.
According to Belgian media reports, security at Belgium’s nuclear power plants has been fortified, with soldiers guarding the sites.
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via Defense News