Paris Attacks Reveal Belgium as the Heart of European Terror

The deadly violence in Paris on Friday is the latest in a series of attacks with strong links to Belgium, adding to mounting evidence the country has become one of the main havens for radicalized young men intent on terrorizing Europe.

As French investigators try to piece together the identity of radical networks responsible for the bloodiest act of terrorism in Europe in a decade, it emerged that two of the killers were Frenchmen who had been living in Belgium. Since Friday night’s attacks, police have detained seven other people in Brussels who they suspect have links to the atrocity.

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“Recruiting networks center around Belgium,” David Gartenstein-Ross, a counter-terrorism specialist at the U.S.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said by telephone on Sunday. Authorities will be questioning “whether militants consider Belgium to be a more permissive environment” and whether there is “a community of extremists who can move relatively undetected.”

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