BRUSSELS — The Belgian authorities on Wednesday partially identified two men believed to be Islamic militants who died last week in a police raid, releasing the first names and nationalities — one Belgian, one Belgian-Moroccan — of the pair, who were suspected of belonging to a terrorist network and plotting an imminent attack.
The partial lifting of the secrecy that has surrounded the men’s identities came after a court in Brussels prolonged the detention of several other suspects arrested in connection with what prosecutors say was a foiled plot, which put the country on high alert. On Saturday, the government deployed troops to guard possible targets in Brussels and Antwerp.
The identities of the pair, who died in a shootout last Thursday in Verviers, an eastern town about 75 miles from Brussels, have been a source of intense speculation and contradictory reports in the Belgian media.
The confusion raised questions about whether the police might have killed people they had not expected to find in the raided house and whether the suspected plot had strictly local roots or involved an international operation.
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Didier De Quévy, another lawyer for Mr. El Bali, said the raids and the deadly showdown in Verviers had been necessary, but may have taken place sooner than the authorities had planned because of the heightened fear of attacks after the carnage in France.
“This was a long-running investigation into a cell, a terrorist nucleus,” Mr. De Quévy said. “To avoid the things that happened in Paris, they intervened more quickly.”
That was probably “a good thing,” he said.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
