Two Belgian Police Officers Injured in Suspected Terrorist Attack in Brussels

A suspect in a terrorist act injured two police officers with knife attacks on Wednesday in Brussels. The city is still recovering from the March bombing by the Islamic State group that left 32 victims. According to AFP, the Belgian prosecutor identified the attacker as Hicham D., a 43-year-old Belgian citizen, who was shot in the leg by police and arrested. However, no information was provided about this individual or the reasons for the suspicion of terrorism. According to Brussels police, one of the two officers, both in plain clothes, was stabbed in the neck, while the other was stabbed in the abdomen. A third officer, who was in uniform and attempted to stop the attacker, suffered a broken nose. The attack occurred shortly after a major train station in Brussels and the city prosecutor's office were evacuated and closed due to concerns about a bombing, which later turned out to be unfounded. A spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor's office told AFP, "We have information indicating that this attack was terrorist in nature." The Belgian prosecutor's statement said, "Around noon on Wednesday, two police officers were attacked by an assailant armed with a knife. Their injuries are not life-threatening. Another police patrol unit was able to subdue the attacker, who was also shot in the leg. His injury is not life-threatening either." The spokesperson said the suspect is now in police custody, and a judge specializing in terrorism cases will decide on extending his detention. Police stated that there is no connection between this attack and the warnings regarding a possible bombing at the train station and the prosecutor's office. This incident occurred on a day when Brussels was hosting an important international conference for financial aid to Afghanistan. Security measures for this meeting at the EU headquarters, located about 4 kilometers from the site of the police attack, had been heightened. Two months ago, in the city of Charleroi in southern Belgium, a man armed with a machete attacked two female police officers while shouting Allahu Akbar. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack. In the suicide bombings carried out by this group at the airport and metro station in Brussels in March, 32 people were killed. The location of today's attack, Schaerbeek, like the neighboring Molenbeek area, has a significant connection to the March terrorist bombings. One of the bomb-making workshops used in the Brussels attacks and the November 2015 bombings in Paris was located in this neighborhood. Additionally, Najim Laachraoui, one of the three suicide bombers at Brussels airport, lived in the Schaerbeek area. All three bombers had traveled from an apartment in this neighborhood, which was their hideout, to the airport.