Wiretaps of phone conversations and listening devices indicated the cell memberswho had been under observation for just under two months and were all from in and around the Molenbeek district of Brusselswere in the final stages of preparing a major terrorist attack in Belgium, the official told CNN.
Two suspected members of the cell had taken up lodging in the residence. Belgian security services had learned they were using the building as a safe house to store automatic weapons and chemicals to make explosives.
The trigger for the arrests was the arrival at the safe house of a third ISIS veteran suspected of being the quartermaster of the plot, tasked with providing the cell logistical support and providing it with equipment and supplies. Belgian security services wanted to arrest all three together, according to the official, and simultaneously make other arrests of suspects across Belgium.
They believed the cell had as many as 10 members.
What happened next around 5:45 p.m. January 15 was the biggest firefight Belgian commandos have faced since World War II, captured for the world to see on a home movie shot by one of the town’s residents.
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In Dabiq magazine, Abaaoud acknowledged that “a brother had taken video footage of some of us before a battle, but his camera got lost and was later sold by a murtadd (a lapsed Muslim) to a Western journalist.”
Abaaoud’s family in Belgium, after hearing nothing from Abaaoud after he traveled to Syria, received word in October he had been killed in fighting, they revealed in interviews with the Belgian media. Belgian counterterrorism officials believe he faked his own death so he could travel more easily to Europe to coordinate the plot.
Western intelligence agencies believe the Belgium plot indicates ISIS is pivoting toward attacking the West, according to a senior European counterterrorism official.
Intelligence suggests the group is seeking to send back European recruits to target the European countries involved in airstrikes against it, according to the official. The UK, France, Holland, Denmark and Belgium are carrying out strikes against ISIS positions in Iraq. More than 750 European extremists have returned to Europe after joining jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, according to official estimates. The Belgian official said Belgium was facing an unprecedented terrorist threat with significant concern returning fighters from Syria or ISIS-inspired lone wolves could be plotting attacks.
Last week, Sen. James Risch, a Republican from Idaho and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that intelligence suggested ISIS was “moving beyond the aspirational” when it came to plotting attacks against Europe and the U.S. homeland.
