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[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif]ISIS claimed to strike yet again on European soil Tuesday, saying its "fighters" launched attacks on the airport and a subway station in Belgium's capital that killed at least 30 people and wounded about 230 more.[/font]
[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif]While jarring, the carnage wasn't altogether surprising. Belgium has been going after terrorist threats for months, as illustrated by last week's capture of Europe's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam, in a bloody raid in Brussels.[/font]
[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif]"We were fearing terrorist attacks," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters Tuesday. "And that has now happened."[/font]
[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif]A Belgian government representative told CNN that 20 people died at the Maelbeek metro station and 130 were wounded, plus 10 more were killed and 100 wounded at Brussels' international airport.[/font]
[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif]The "working assumption" is that the attackers came from the network behind November's massacres in Paris, which left 130 dead, Belgian security sources said, while cautioning it is very early in the latest investigation.[/font]
[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif]After Tuesday's attacks, Belgian state broadcaster RTBF reported that Belgian authorities carried out midday raids in a search for people linked to the attacks. Several witnesses told CNN they'd seen police special forces combing through the northeast Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek, cordoning off a train station there.
Belgian police released a notice that includes a photograph of a suspect "wanted (for) terrorism" and asks the public, "Who recognizes this man?"
Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said the man is one of three shown in surveillance images pushing airport luggage carts alongside each other. Two of them "probably carried out suicide attacks," he said, while the third -- the one in light clothing, glasses and a hat -- "is actively being searched for."
As it has for other terrorist attacks in Europe, Asia and Africa, ISIS embraced all the assailants. Its claim noted that Belgium is "participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State." In fact, Belgian warplanes flew 796 sorties and launched 163 airstrikes over Iraq from September 2014 to July 2015, according to the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition, and were set to resume these operations this summer.
Johan Verbeke, Belgium's U.S. ambassador, insisted Tuesday that his country will remain an active participant in the coalition, saying, "There is no way that intimidation will be rewarded."
But just as Belgium plans to continue its anti-ISIS operations, the extremist group may not be done attacking that country and others. One Twitter post widely circulated by prominent ISIS backers featured the words, "What will be coming is worse."[/font]
[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif][/font]
[font=CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif]'It was a matter of time'[/font]
This was days after the Belgium raids for a perpetrator of the November attacks on Paris.