(Brussels Times) Five years ago this month saw the start of the military operation now known as Operation Vigilant Guardian (OVG), which saw the arrival of military patrols on the streets of Brussels and other cities, in response to a growing terrorist threat.
The original trigger for the launch of OVG was the attack in Paris in 2015 on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, followed by the dismantling of an Islamic terrorist cell in Verviers, in which operation two men were shot dead and one arrested.
Military personnel were deployed to locations considered sensitive, including embassies (in particular the US, the UK and Israel) and religious, particularly Jewish, institutions.
