Belgium commemorates Brussels terror attacks 10 years on

BRUSSELS – Belgium on March 22 marked 10 years since the 2016 extremist bombings in Brussels, a trauma that still scars the country and that authorities say sharpened focus on intelligence and counterterrorism.

The March 22, 2016 attacks claimed by the Islamic State group left 32 people dead and more than 300 wounded – Belgium’s worst peacetime massacre.

Survivors – watched on by Prime Minister Bart de Wever, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde – recounted the harrowing scenes they witnessed that morning, as the remembrance ceremonies began just before 8am local time (3pm Singapore time) at Brussels Airport in Zaventem.

The proceedings are set to arrive an hour later at the Maelbeek metro station, also targeted in the coordinated suicide blasts that ripped through the Belgian capital, before culminating at a monument in memory of the victims in central Brussels.

“Telling you that living this life is easy would be a lie. I wake up every day with the memories of horror. I look at my body that has been burnt, bruised and torn apart,” said Ms Beatrice de Lavalette, who lost her legs at the airport.

“Every day, I remember lying on this floor bleeding out, and in that moment I remember telling myself: ‘This is not my time. I will not die here,’” said Ms Lavalette, who became a Paralympic horse rider after the tragedy.

The Brussels attacks were the work of the same extremist cell that struck Paris just months earlier on Nov 13, 2015, killing 130 people.

Having retreated to Brussels safe houses, the extremists mounted a hastily organised attack in the days after the March 18 arrest of Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the Paris attack group.

On March 22, a Tuesday morning, three suicide bombers detonated their explosives, first at Zaventem and then at a packed metro station close to the seat of European Union institutions.

‘Feeling of failure’

The commemorations take place as the war in the Middle East has heightened the authorities’ concerns about possible new attacks.

In March, a pre-dawn blast damaged a synagogue in eastern city Liege, causing no injuries. Over the border, the Netherlands was later hit by two similar incidents targeting the Jewish community.

In Belgium, the threat level remains “serious” at three on a scale of four, following an October 2023 attack in Brussels that saw a gunman shoot dead two Swedish football fans before he was killed by police.

Belgium was criticised for security failings in the run-up to the 2016 bombings, something the head of the country’s OCAM national threat analysis centre, Mr Gert Vercauteren, said he remembers well.

“It’s a feeling of failure that obviously hit us all,” he said in an interview with AFP.

In the aftermath of the bombings, the Belgian government was left reeling.

Two ministers offered their resignations after Turkey said Belgium had ignored warnings from Ankara, which deported airport bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui in 2015 following his arrest near the Syrian border.

‘Struggle for recognition’

Today, the justice system, police and intelligence services assert they have significantly improved information sharing.

The number of state security service staff has increased from 600 to 950 agents in a decade. “We have learnt the right lessons,” said Mr Vercauteren.

The creation of a shared database on extremist profiles was “a major step forward”, he added.

This database, which all security services, including municipal police forces working with community outreach staff, can access and contribute to, is constantly updated.

In 2025, it contained 555 names “under priority monitoring”, 86 per cent of whom were flagged for “Islamist extremism”, according to OCAM.

But some victims complain that even 10 years after the attacks, they are still unable to have their physical or psychological injuries recognised, limiting their right to compensation.

“Many victims and many relatives feel abandoned. This is a struggle for recognition and financial justice,” said Mr Edmond Pinczowski, who lost his two adult children, Alexander and Sascha, at the airport.

Recently, Defence Minister Theo Francken admitted to “a serious error” after 14 victims were asked to repay compensation received over the attacks as a result of a mistake by the federal pension service. AFP