EU to discuss security measures after Brussels attacks

BRUSSELS, March 24: European Union justice and security ministers hold talks in Brussels Thursday on ways to shore up intelligence and security, as police search for yet another suspect in the attacks in the Belgian capital that killed at least 31 people and wounded 300 others.
Police have launched a manhunt for a second man who appears involved in the suicide bombing at Maelbeek metro station Tuesday morning, Belgian media report. Authorities earlier identified Khalid El Bakraoui as the assailant in the metro attack that killed 20 people and injured scores more.
But video surveillance at the Maelbeek station showed a second man walking with El Bakraoui carrying a large bag, Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper reported, citing police confirmation.
El Bakraoui’s brother Ibrahim has been formally identified as one of the two suicide bombers in the airport attacks that occurred the same morning. Media have identified the second bomber as Najim Laachraoui, a bombmaker for Islamic State, who is considered a key accomplice in the November Paris attacks.
A third man, captured in airport video pushing a trolley with the two suicide bombers, remains at large.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks, as it did for the Paris attacks in November.
Indeed, mounting evidence points to increasingly closer links between the Brussels and Paris terrorist strikes, raising questions about lapses in cross-border intelligence and security cooperation.
Those questions will be at the forefront of the EU meeting Thursday afternoon.
“We need to have a union of security,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said at a news conference in Brussels Wednesday, urging member states to adopt the Commissions proposals on tighter external border controls and measures to make it more difficult to acquire firearms within the EU.
Europe’s visa-free Schengen system, already threatened by the migrant influx, is also under fresh scrutiny. Much of the attention centers on Belgium, as authorities here are increasingly pressured to explain how a terrorist network apparently managed to plot and carry out two attacks – in Paris and Brussels – within months. -Agencies