by Nicola Comparato –
The attacker who shot up in Brussels last night, killing two Swedish fans by shooting wildly with an assault rifle, has been identified and killed. The man, 45-year-old Tunisian Abdesalem Lassoued, got off his scooter on Boulevard d’Ypres around 7pm, pulled out his weapon and shouted “Allah akbar” and started shooting at cars and then at a man Earth. The dead are two Swedish fans who were in the capital to follow the Belgium – Sweden match, which was immediately suspended. The killer then got on his scooter, but was then identified by cameras scattered around the city: he came into conflict with police officers, was injured and died shortly after. According to police sources cited by Freetwo other people are currently being sought by the police.
Investigators are sifting through his contacts and the various traces he left starting from his Facebook profile entitled Slayem Slouma, where he spoke of “revenge for Muslims”. It emerged however that he had spent time in the past in Italy, specifically in Bologna in 2016, where he had been identified by police.
Abdesalem Lassoued lived in Brussels with his wife and daughter in the Schaerbeek neighborhood, but he was illegal and already subject to an expulsion order.
With this attack, Belgium once again finds itself in the crosshairs of Islamic terrorism, particularly in Brussels. On March 22, 2016, the Belgian capital was the scene of three coordinated terrorist attacks, which occurred in the metropolitan area of the city. Two occurred at Brussels-National Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station. These actions were claimed by ISIS on the same day. The total death toll was 340 injured and 38 people killed (35 civilians and three terrorists).
