Two Swedes were shot dead in Brussels Monday during a possible ISIS terror attack in retaliation for a 6-year-old Muslim boy who was killed in Illinois over the weekend.
Belgian police were still searching early Tuesday for the gunman whose attack raised the terror alert in the capital city and caused a professional soccer game to be cut short.
A man claimed in a video on social media that he was the assailant in Monday’s attack and that he was from the Islamic State.
The double murder was reportedly revenge after a Chicago-area landlord allegedly stabbed and killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounded his mother on Saturday, purportedly because the tenants are Muslim.
Eric Van Duyse, spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, said the investigation was centering on “a possible terrorist motivation for the shooting” after “a claim of responsibility was posted on social media.”
“This person claims to be inspired by Islamic State,” Van Duyse added. “The Swedish nationality of the victims was put forward as the probable motive.”
As of early Tuesday, the gunman was still on the lam.
Following the savage attack, Brussels’ anti-terror center raised the terror alert to its top rating of 4, meaning a “threat is extremely serious.” The alert level or the rest of the country was raised to 2.
The suspect in the Illinois slaying, 71-year-old Joseph M. Czuba, was arrested and charged with murder and hate crimes. He was denied bail at his initial court appearance on Monday.
Czuba allegedly murdered Wadea Al-Fayoume and attacked his mother, 32-year-old Hanan Shaheen, in the apartment they rented from him.
At a hearing Monday, prosecutors told the court Czuba had been closely listening to coverage of the violence in Israel and was convinced his Muslim tenants would harm him as part of Hamas’ “day of jihad” Friday
The man claiming responsibility for Monday’s attack wrote on Facebook, “They called it a brutal crime because he was a Muslim,” according to a Belgium outlet. “If the murdered were a Christian and the murderer was a Muslim, the subject would have been terrorism.”
“I have just offered my sincere condolences to the Swedish PM following tonight’s harrowing attack on Swedish citizens in Brussels,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said on X.
“Our thoughts are with the families and friends who lost their loved ones. As close partners the fight against terrorism is a joint one,” he said.
One Belgian newspaper said it was likely that the victims were two soccer supporters. According to Sky Sports, both victims were wearing Swedish football shirts.
Belgium was hosting Sweden in a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying match on Monday evening at the time of the shooting, however the match was suspended at halftime due to the “suspected terrorist attack,” UEFA said in a post on X.
Roughly 35,000 soccer fans were held inside for several hours as a precaution.
Sweden has been the target of ire among many Muslims in recent months, after several right-wing and anti-Muslim activists have held police-sanctioned public burnings of the Quran, the central religious text of the Islamic faith.
Ahead of one such planned Quran burning in July, which was set to occur outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, setting it ablaze.
Iraq also cut diplomatic ties with the Scandinavian country, expelling the Swedish ambassador, recalling its own charge d’affaires in Sweden and suspending the working permit of Swedish firm Ericsson on Iraqi soil.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has been a vocal critic of the burnings, saying although they are legal, they are inappropriate.
With Post wires
