Two men were shot down by Belgian police earlier today, after they were targeted in one of almost a dozen anti-terrorist raids in the country.
According to Reuters, the two men were said by federal prosecutors to have planned a launch of “terrorist attacks on a grand scale,” which comes a week after two gunmen raised fear in Europe over their attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.
The site reports that after investigation, there was no link between these men and the gunmen suspects from the massacre.
A third man was detained in the eastern city of Verviers, where police commandos ran into a hail of gunfire after trying to gain entry to an apartment above a town center bakery. All three were citizens of Belgium, which has one of the biggest concentrations of European Islamists fighting in Syria.
Other raids on the homes of men returned from the civil war there were conducted across the country, prosecutors said, adding that they were suspected of planning attacks on Belgian police stations. Security had been tightened at such sites.
Reports also say that the investigation had been ongoing well before the attack in Paris, as it was carried out into an operational cell with some of the members that had returned from Syria.
We will keep all of those effected by any shootings in our prayers.
SOURCE: Reuters | VIDEO CREDIT: NewsInc. | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
