Belgian police arrest key suspects in Brussels, Paris attacks

Abrini was arrested from around the Brussels borough of Molenbeek. Police said he was known to have a criminal record.

Belgium police arrested a Paris terror attack suspect, who is also thought to be the "man in the hat" behind the Brussels airport bombing.

Prosecutors said Belgian national Mohamed Abrini was held along with two other suspects. Abrini had been in the police radar for helping the attackers launch gun and bomb assault in Paris on November 13 that killed 130 people.

Abrini was arrested from around the Brussels borough of Molenbeek. Police said he was known to have a criminal record.

Earlier, police arrested a Swedish man named Osama Krayem who had been in investigation crosshairs after being checked by German police for using a fake Syrian passport while in a car rented by Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam.

Prosecutors said Krayem was filmed in Brussels buying sports bags used to hide the airport and metro station bombs, BBC reported.

Abrini, a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, had been reportedly seen in the video footage taken from a petrol station with Paris suspect Abdeslam, who was arrested in Brussels.

The footage showed him travelling with Abdeslam to Paris days before the attacks. Prosecutors said Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were found in the same Brussels apartments where two of the Zaventem airport bombers also stayed.

Local media said Abrini had stayed in Syria last summer.

In March Belgian prosecutors had arrested key plotter Fayçal Cheffou and charged him for terrorist killings and attempted murders over the Brussels bombing that killed 31 people.

Cheffou had played the core role in planning and attacking the attack, Belgian authorities said.

He was identified as the man appearing dressed in long jacket and hat, alongside bombers Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, in CCTV footage from the Zaventem airport.

Other two men, Aboubakar A. and Rabah N, were charged with terrorist activities and membership of a terrorist group.

The Islamic State had claimed the responsibility for Brussels bombing and warned "crusader states" allied against it were in for more such attacks.

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