Belgian police arrested six Pakistani men at a gas station 20 miles outside of Brussels. They were driving converted ambulances and what police found inside the ambulances caused them great concern.
Arriving in armored vehicles, Belgian police pulled into a gas station located in a town 20 miles from Brussels on Saturday and arrested six men. The men had pulled into the gas station driving old ambulances. The gas station had been used before by one of the alleged planners of the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam. Abdeslam, 26, remains a wanted fugitive and authorities believe he may be heading for Syria.
Belgian police yelled at the men to get out of the ambulances. The six terror suspects were immediately taken into custody and the ambulances were searched, reports the British Daily Mail. The police had orders not to shoot at the men, as they were to be taken alive at all costs. The men were from England but were all Pakistani.
The police believe the men may have been trying to get into Syria. Inside the ambulances were enough clothes, money and food to have kept them going for quite some time. The gas station is located in the town of Bierges, Belgium. The arrested men didn’t speak any French but were cooperative with the police. One of the men was known to British intelligence.
The ambulances had been converted to regular storage vans to carry the men and their supplies. A worker at the gas station remembered Abdeslam as being a regular there. Abdesalm is suspected of being on his way to Syria but intelligence forces believe that he may be hiding out in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek. Molenbeek has the world wide reputation for being what is called the “jihadist capital of Europe.”
Police believe that the men may be connected to the Islamic State because using old ambulances is a known method used by the Islamic State for transporting sympathizers. Brussels has been on lockdown since Saturday and the Belgian government is unsure when the restrictions will be lifted. Belgian soldiers patrol the streets and stand watch at the city’s hotels. Brussels has become a virtual ghost town in less than two days. The downtown areas, which are usually packed with tourists and Belgian citizens, was nearly empty.
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council told the nations of the world that their governments had free reign to “take all necessary measures” in any effort to defeat the Islamic State.
