Level 4 alert in Brussels: Swedes targeted, radical Islamist from Tunisia killed

A sleepless night for many Swedes. Painful even for the Belgian policemen. And the last one for 45-year-old Abdelsalem Lasued, the terrorist who killed two Swedish fans and seriously wounded a taxi driver before last night's football match, is now out of danger. The morning after several hours of drama on the streets of Brussels, the news finally appeared: Lassued was killed in a police operation in Schaerbeek, while he was sitting in a cafe.

He also had the weapon he used to commit the attack.

A citizen of Tunisia, a radical Islamist, a man who stayed in Belgium illegally, since his request for asylum submitted in November 2019 was rejected. In March 2021, he was ordered to leave the country, but the police underestimated the risk. And they knew Lassued was dangerous. He was already under suspicion for various crimes, including people smuggling.

And not only that, as early as July 2016, a foreign police informed colleagues in Belgium that Lassued, who also calls himself Slime S, is suspected of being a potential terrorist threat and that he even tried to sneak into the jihadist war zone of the Islamic State on Middle East. At that time, dozens of such reports came to Belgium every day. There was no concrete evidence, the police looked elsewhere.

A big mistake, because even then the security services were afraid because of suspicions that Lassued wanted to die as a "martyr of the Islamic State". It was also clear when last night, around the time of the attack, he bragged on social media that he had killed three Swedes. Fortunately, one survived. He spoke of himself as a "warrior on the way to Allah".

"We live as our faith dictates, we die as our faith dictates," he continued...

Belgium has already been flooded with footage of Lassued driving around the city on a motorcycle while shouting "Allahu Akbar". A video of the shooting itself is also available. We will not publish it. Before the attack, he posted another video.

"In the name of God's book, soul and blood will be sacrificed."

Radicalized earlier, "triggered" by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The day before the shooting itself, on Facebook, where he has 3,000 friends, he also posted the news about the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian boy in the US. He was stabbed to death by his mother's landlord. He admitted that he did it because they are Muslims.

"He was stabbed 26 times and they call it a brutal crime just because the child was a Muslim. If he was a Christian, and if the killer was a Muslim, then they would write that it was a terrorist act."

Belgium-Sweden match suspended after two fans were killed by a terrorist

Exactly 16 hours before the attack, he posted pictures of the war in Israel, expressed support for the Palestinians... And somewhere in the meantime, he remembered that right-wing organizations burned the Muslim holy book Quran in Sweden this year. The competent authorities are convinced that he did not accidentally target the Swedish fans. It was established that he follows numerous Islamist pages on social networks, as well as those that spread various conspiracy theories. One is called: "Swedish injustice". There, for example, it is claimed that a Swedish social institution kidnaps Muslim children?! Complete nonsense, enough to boggle the mind of someone already for a clinical trial.

The good thing is that it is believed that he is a loner, that he had no associates and that the situation will quickly return to normal. Until that happens in Belgium, the terrorist alert level 3 is going up to the highest level 4 in Brussels. There will be no large gatherings, schools will mostly work, but not all, and even fewer families will send their children to classes. Flemish people are advised not to come to Brussels, but to work from home...

Two Swedish lives were lost. The fans were only released from the stadium around four in the morning, when security conditions were created. All of them were escorted by the police. And they were on duty all night in front of every hotel where there were Swedes staying.