Failure to stop ISIL attack rocks Belgium

Revelations from Turkey that it had informed Belgium that at least one of the bombers in the March 22 Brussels attack was a jihadist fighter have rocked the Western European country after authorities failed to prevent the deadly assault.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens offered their resignations over the Brussels attacks, but they were rejected by Prime Minister Charles Michel, Belgian media reported March 24.

Belgian authorities are facing embarrassment after Turkey said on March 23 that last year Ankara deported back to Europe Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the suicide bombers who carried out the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacks on March 22, and warned Belgium he was a militant.

"We informed the Brussels embassy of the deportation process of the attacker with a note on July 14, 2015. However, the Belgians released the attacker despite his deportation," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said March 23, adding that one of the perpetrators of the Brussels attack had been detained by Turkish authorities in June 2015 in the southeastern province of Gaziantep and deported.

Hours after Erdo?an's remarks, Geens said he was aware one of the Brussels attackers had been sent to the Netherlands from Turkey, but denied that he had been flagged as a possible terrorist.

The attacks at Brussels' Zaventem Airport and Maalbeek Metro Station in Brussels on March 22 killed at least 31 people and wounded 270 others. 

Ibrahim El Bakraoui is one of two brothers, along with Khalid El Bakraoui, named by Belgium as responsible for the attacks in Brussels. Both brothers are believed to have died in the attacks.

Meanwhile, two Turkish officials speaking on condition of...