(AFP) Belgium’s anti-terrorist agency on Tuesday said 650 people considered to have jihadist and other extremist ties are under surveillance in the country.
The data was published as Belgian officials stress they are doing everything to prevent attacks after at least 139 people were killed in Moscow in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State.
Belgium was deeply shaken by IS bombings in 2016 and its latest brush with jihadist violence came last October when a Tunisian gunman killed two Swedes in an attack claimed by the group.
The 650 individuals are part of a list that all security forces can access, and 88 percent “follow a jihadist ideology,” the Ocam agency said.
