Officers killed two suspects, and wounded and arrested a third.
Like the Paris killers, the three suspects in the town of Verviers were seen on Thursday dressed in all black. They carried large duffel bags outside of a former bakery, a Western intelligence source said. It may have been their lair.
Police recovered four Kalashnikovs, bomb making materials and police uniforms, a Western intelligence source said.
Fear of terror was already high in Western Europe after multiple threats from ISIS and al Qaeda’s Yemen arm. After the raid, it spread again through neighboring countries, as intelligence officials spoke of a possible mobilization of terrorists living in them.
Up to 20 sleeper cells
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Dozens on trial
The raid was set before the background of the terror trial of dozens of men suspected of recruiting Jihadis or trying to go to Syria to fight themselves. An Antwerp court was to return verdict this week but postponed it due to the Paris attacks.
CNN affiliate VTM reported that the terrorism investigation in Belgium started weeks ago, and there has been no connection established with the Paris attacks.
But then Western intelligence source said the Paris attacks played a role in accelerating the timing of the Belgian operation.
CNN’s Paul Cruickshank, Catherine E. Shoichet, Mariano Castillo, Jim Sciutto and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.
