Two Swedish nationals were shot dead and a local taxi driver injured in an armed attack in Brussels on Monday night.
Soon after the shooting, a man appeared in a social media video claiming responsibility as an ISIS-affiliate and “fighter for Allah”.
The man claimed the attack was carried out for “revenge in the name of Islam”, after a six year-old Palestinian-Muslim boy was murdered, and his mother critically injured, in Illinois, United States.
The US attack was an alleged hate crime over the family’s faith, sparked in response to the Israel-Hamas war. The child was stabbed 26 times and his 32 year-old mother more than a dozen times, by their landlord, 71-year-old Joseph Czuba.
The mother is recovering in hospital and is expected to survive the attack, according to the authorities.
The Palestinian origin family, like so many others, had sought refuge in the United States to “live, learn and worship in peace”, the White House said.
The Brussels shooting took place about five kilometres from a stadium where Belgium was playing Sweden in a qualifier for Euro 2024. The incident led to the game being abandoned at half-time. Fans were also kept inside the stadium as law enforcement searched for the suspected attacker, who was later shot dead by police in a Brussels cafe on Tuesday morning. The Belgian media identified him as Abdesalem L., 45, of Tunisia.