Belgium arrests 2 brothers suspected of plotting attack

Reporting from Brussels —  Two brothers have been arrested in Belgium on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced Saturday.

Nourredine H., 33, and his brother Hamza H. were taken in for questioning following police searches Friday evening in the city of Liege and the Mons region. A Belgian judge will decide Saturday whether the two men should remain in custody.

The police searches were carried out at the request of a magistrate specializing in terrorism investigations, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. It said that according to preliminary information, the brothers may have been involved in plans to commit an attack in Belgium.

In the search of seven houses in the Mons area and Liege, no weapons or explosives were found, officials said.

At present, there is no indication the brothers were connected to the March 22 suicide bombings that killed 32 people at Brussels Airport and in the Brussels subway, the prosecutor’s office said. That attack, claimed by the Islamic State extremist group, was carried out by the same cell that killed 130 people in attacks in Paris on Nov. 13.

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UPDATES:

3:35 a.m.: Updated with details from the prosecutor’s statement.

This article was first posted at 2:15 a.m.