Belgian Jihadis

Media outlets report two killed and one seriously injured in ongoing police operation against alleged terror group in Verviers Two people have been killed and another seriously injured in Verviers, eastern Belgium, during a police counter-terrorism raid, according to media reports. The Belgian public television channel RTBF said on its website that the public prosecutor’s office had confirmed the deaths after a police operation against an alleged terrorist group at around 6pm local time on Thursday. The station said there were no casualties among the security forces involved and that several people had been arrested. The shooting at Verviers comes a day after it was revealed that a man had been arrested in Brussels on suspicion of having sold weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, one of the gunmen in the attacks in Paris which left 17 victims and three jihadists dead last week. The Belga news agency quoted officials as saying the targets of the Verviers raid had been under surveillance since recently returning from Syria. It said there were several casualties and that police activity was continuing. There were also unconfirmed reports of two other police counter-terrorist operations in other parts of Belgium. Explosions and detonations reverberated in Verviers, near the train station, a witness told RTBF. Named only as Marie-Laure, she said a helmeted police officer told her to leave the crossroads, where there was a small blue van and a car. Police vehicles were at the scene, along with an anti-explosive unit and ambulances. Three or four explosions and tens of gunshots were heard. A press conference was due to take place at 8pm local time. There appeared to be police activity continuing at the scene in Verviers, some 70 miles from Brussels. Mark Eeckhaut, crime reporter at the Standaard in Belgium, said police sources confirmed that the two men who had been killed were jihadis, while it was unclear who the third casualty was. According to Belgian reports, the suspected gun-peddler arrested on Wednesday told the police he would rather be in police custody than be targeted by Coulibaly’s accomplices. French police had reported they were looking for accomplices of the three gunmen – Coulibaly, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi. But it is not known yet whether there was any connection between’s Thursday’s shootings in Belgium and the French attacks. - See more at: http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_373_36767.php#sthash.Qa6RSkHe.dpuf