Belgian Anti-Terror Agency Monitors 650 Suspected Extremists After ISIS Attack in Moscow

Illustration of Belgian Police. (Wikimedia Commons/European People's Party)

JAKARTA - Belgium's anti-terrorist agency announced they are monitoring 650 people in the country who are considered to have links to terrorism and extremism.

The 650 people are part of a list accessible to all security forces, and 88 percent "follow the jihadist ideology," said the Ocam agency, quoted by The National News, March 28.

Among them, 426 people were identified as "foreign terrorist militants", that is, people who traveled or attempted to travel to conflict zones to mobilize terrorist movements.

Nine percent and two percent of these individuals are under surveillance, as they have ties to far-right and extreme-left groups, respectively.

Another 1 percent represent “various threats” that are anti-elite in nature or related to political disputes abroad.

The new figures were published as Belgian officials stressed they were doing everything to prevent attacks after at least 140 people were killed in Moscow in a massacre claimed by Islamic State last Friday.

Much earlier, ISIS bombings in 2016 particularly impacted Belgium, while the most recent terrorism-related violence occurred last October, when a Tunisian gunman killed two Swedes in an attack claimed by the group.

Currently, the terror risk level in Belgium remains high, at three, one below the highest level, meaning there is a risk of a “serious” but not “very serious” attack.

|To move up to level four, we really need to have concrete elements regarding an impending attack and currently, we don't have those elements in Belgium," said Ocam Chairman Gert Vercauteren.

For comparison, neighboring France raised their level on Sunday.

These levels, which apply to the entire country, do not exclude the possibility of increases at local level or for certain events and sensitive visits, Vercauteren added.

It is known that the figure of 650 in 2023 shows a decrease of around seven percent compared to 2022.