Brahim El Bakraoui
Brussels airport suicide bomber Ibrahim El-Bakraoui, 29, was deported from Turkey not once, but twice, in the past year, and sent back to Europe. Ibrahim El-Bakraoui went to Turkey first in June of 2015. CNNTurk reports: 'Ibrahim el Bakraoui came to Gaziantep in late June 2015 to join ISIS. 'Gaziantep Anti-Terror Intelligence District Authority teams monitored Ibrahim el Bakraoui who was trying to contact some people to pass the border [into Syria].' The province of Gaziantep, is on the Syrian-Turkish border, across from the 62 miles controlled by ISIS.
According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ibrahim El Bakraoui was detained on July 14, 2015. He said that Turkish officials informed the Belgian Embassy about the his deportation with a note, but that Belgian officials could not find any link between El Bakroui and terrorist networks, so he was released. President Erdogan said that Netherlands officials were also notified.
A determined Ibrahim El Bakraoui returned a second time to Turkey, less than a month after his first deportation. He landed in the southern airport in Antalya on August 11, 2015, another unnamed Turkish official told Reuters. By this point, his name was already on Turkey's blacklist, so Turkish officials deported him, yet again, on August 25. Unbelievably, Ibrahim El Bakraoui was still not apprehended by EU officials.
These claims have since been slammed by both Belgian and Dutch authorities, who say that he was only deported once, and was never flagged as a possible terrorist by Turkey. The 30-year-old ISIS militant was not on any Dutch or international wanted lists, Dutch justice minister Ard van der Steur said on Thursday. 'We checked with our Belgian, German and Turkish colleagues and in all cases he was not registered in our systems,' Van der Steur told a news conference.
According to the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, the other two known Brussels attackers had also come to Turkey before Ibrahim. His younger brother Khalid, 27, apparently landed in Istanbul's Ataturk airport on November 4, 2015 and Turkish officials monitored him before he left the country ten days later - one day after the Paris attacks. Belgian authorities apparently didn't issue a warrant for his arrest until December 12, 2015, and then filed an Interpol red notice for suspected 'terrorism' ties on March 2, 2016.
Najim Laachraoui, 24, the fellow Brussels airport suicide bomber and alleged master bomb maker who is believed to have been instrumental in the November 2015 Paris attacks which killed 130, also made his way to Turkey. Laachraoui landed in Turkey on February 17, 2013, but when authorities contacted their Belgian counterparts to inquire into his background, they responded his record was 'clean', so he was not deported.
It's not known when he returned to Europe, but on April 9, 2014, the newspaper reports Belgian police issued a warrant for his arrest for being 'a member of a terrorist organization', and his name was added to the long blacklist of suspected foreign jihadis banned from entering Turkey on June 16, 2014. Belgium apparently issued an Interpol red notice for Laachraoui on March 2, 2016, and French officials followed suit on March 18, 2016 - only four days before the deadly attack.
The Brussels attackers are not the first who went to Turkey, and about whom Turkey warned EU officials. One of the Paris suicide bombers who attacked the Bataclan Theatre killing 89, Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, was said to have went into Turkey in 2013, and thought to have gone on to Syria at some point. Turkish authorities say they warned France about possible terrorist links twice in December 2014 and June of 2015, but that French authorities did not respond until after the attack on November 13, 2015.
Turkey looks like the good guy for the under emphasized warning, but were really the ones who helped to orchestrate, and check to make sure the bombers would have freedom of movement to commit terror acts unchecked upon returning?
Kind of strange Erdogan hinted about the Brussels attack a few days before it happened.