Belgium arrests Iraqi suspected of Al-Qaeda 'war crimes' in Baghdad
by AFP Staff Writers
Brussels (AFP) May 5, 2023

Belgium police have arrested an Iraqi immigrant suspected of belonging to an Al-Qaeda cell that carried out deadly car bombings in Baghdad in 2009-2010, prosecutors said Friday.

The man, identified by the initials O.Y.T., born in 1979, was detained on Wednesday when police raided an address near the city of Antwerp on orders of an anti-terrorist judge, they said in a statement.

He was appearing in court on Friday on charges of "several murders with terrorist intent, participation in the activities of a terrorist group, war crimes and crimes against humanity" to determine whether he would remain in custody.

He is believed to have been part of an Al-Qaeda cell "partly responsible for several bombings in the Green Zone of Baghdad (Iraq) in 2009 and 2010, which killed at least 376 people and injured more than 2,300," the statement said.

Among the targets of those car bombings were Iraqi government buildings, it said.

Prosecutors said the Iraqi had been living in Belgium since 2015 and the probe against him was launched in 2020.

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