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Belgian Police Search for Bombing Suspect; Belgium Declares Three Days of Mourning; Basketball Player Seriously Wounded in Airport Attack; 2016 Candidates React; Attacks Occur Just Days after Terror Arrest. Aired 2-2:30a ET
Aired March 23, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: I'm Max Foster in Brussels. This is CNN's special coverage of the terror attacks in Belgium.
A massive manhunt is under way at this hour for the prime suspect in the Brussels airport bombing.
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FOSTER (voice-over): Authorities say these men, seen in airport surveillance video, are behind the attack. The two on the left blew themselves up. The one on the right is believed to have planted a bomb at the airport, then left.
Police raided the residence, where a taxi driver says he picked the men up from early on Tuesday. They found a nail bomb, chemicals and an ISIS flag. The airport bombing killed 10 people and injured 100 others. Another bombing at a subway station an hour later killed 20 people.
Bringing in CNN's senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir.
You were there yesterday; you're here today and the whole investigation is moving on today.
What do you understand to be the focus today?
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it has to be the manhunt. For authorities, it's really going to be about closing in on whatever network is potentially out there because the fear is they don't know what is planned.
So you have one suspect who's on the run but you also don't really as yet know the breadth of the network that supported this attack. And we're still learning about their efforts to pick up those who were involved in the broader network in the Paris attack four months ago.
So this can take a while. But police have stressed that the man they're looking for is dangerous. And that's in addition to a separate manhunt; Najim Laachraoui, believed to be a key co- conspirator in the Paris attacks, which was intensifying in the days leading up to the events that unfolded yesterday.
So there is so much at stake here and so much authorities really need to get a handle on quite quickly.
FOSTER: Why are we hearing so little about who might have carried out the metro attack?
ELBAGIR: The sense we're getting is perhaps authorities believe that the attacker that was in there, that he died when his device was detonated. So they're not as yet looking for someone who escaped and that's probably why they're not releasing it to the public domain.
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FOSTER: Because they don't need to.
ELBAGIR: Yes, any of that surveillance footage that they're combing through isn't being released as yet.
FOSTER: A great lead they got from the taxi driver yesterday when they released that picture. He took them to their apartment, it seems.
ELBAGIR: Absolutely. It's these kinds of tips that can really change the whole direction of an investigation. There have been house raids already but then suddenly they had a very real focus point, Schaerbeek.
And when they got there, that's when they found the chemicals, the nail bomb and the ISIS flag.
FOSTER: This man on the run -- we're showing the image as much as possible because people need to identify him. But the longer it -- we're nearly up to 24 hours now since the attack was carried out. The longer we don't find him, the further he could have got. But then he could be here in Brussels as well.
ELBAGIR: And that was the conversation that was being had post the Paris attack. People were speculating about where in the various corners of Europe or whether back in Syria Salah Abdeslam could be. And then he was found a street away from his childhood neighborhood.
And authorities admitted at the time that they were as blindsided by that as the rest of us.
FOSTER: How much do you know about the Paris attack network being linked to the Brussels attack network?
Are we just assuming there's a link because it was all in the same area of Brussels.
ELBAGIR: Well, authorities are saying that that is their working assumption, that there are at least overlapping aspects of these networks. I think it's important to remind ourselves that these are different networks.
You have the Paris attack network. You had a separate network that was believed to have formed around Salah Abdeslam that was attempting, authorities believe, to carry out attacks here. These are the linkages that they now have to try and connect. And there is -- there's just so much at stake.
And we should stress that authorities are reiterating, if you see this man, do not approach him. He is dangerous, they believe.
FOSTER: As you walk through Brussels, it's eerie, having all these streets cordoned off in a major European capital. But we see here the street cleaners are out trying to get back to normal and there's a real sense that people want to get back to normal in defiance against ISIS, isn't there?
ELBAGIR: Absolutely. I think yesterday was the shock. They just couldn't believe, I think, having lived with the specter of this for so long, almost that had normalized. Months post-Paris, people were expecting this to happen, expecting this to happen and then suddenly it did. So you have the disbelief --
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ELBAGIR: -- and this morning, just seeing the people who overnighted here at the vigil, seeing the messages that are being sent out, people really want to send the message, it seems, to the rest of the world that we're undefeated. We're here and we will continue our lives.
FOSTER: OK. Nima, thank you very much indeed. The airport still closed at the moment, also the underground stations here still cordoned off. So still work to be done there in terms of the investigation before they can be freed up.
But just about two kilometers from here is the Maelbeek metro station, another scene of utter horror on Tuesday morning.
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FOSTER (voice-over): The sounds are just horrific, a child's agonizing screams after a bomb ripped through that subway station. The blast sent wounded people fleeing into the streets above. Emergency responders turned a nearby hotel lobby into a makeshift triage area.
The Maelbeek metro station is just blocks away from a number of key European Commission buildings and the European parliament as well, maybe part of the target here.
Let's turn to journalist Chris Burns. He's a former CNN correspondent who lives near the Maelbeek metro station.
What they achieved here, the attackers, ISIS, if we're to believe they've claimed responsibility, is that they carried out a major attack on a European city but also in a very symbolic area. This represents Europe in many areas, the area where you live. CHRIS BURNS, JOURNALIST: Max, yes, absolutely because that -- where that bomb went off was in a metro station that is used by people who go to the European parliament especially. And it was just one stop away from here, from the European Commission and European Council, where you have the summits of European leaders, of the E.U., 28 countries.
It was an attack on the European Union. This is the first time, a terrorist attack. And today the European parliament at least is shut down. They told me it's shut down at least for today.
I'm also in contact with the council and the commission to see what they will be doing today. Obviously things are quite scaled down and much of the metro stations are closed today. Some schools will be open but this is really a country that is very much in grief.
I might show you a headline of one of the newspapers with some of the victims, the faces of the victims, the people who were injured and were killed in this attack. Lots of horrid stories.
And this headline saying that, war in the center, in the middle of Brussels. This country is in grief. The prime minister is saying that the country is united in pain. They would like to come back to normal. But it's going to be a while with people in deep grief today, as you're seeing exhibited across this city.
Over my shoulder are the flags flying at half staff at the European Commission. And there are three days of mourning across this country and as well a statement given by the European Union itself, that they are crying for the victims and that they hope that they can preserve still this peace and democracy and freedom that exists in the European Union.
But at the same time, they might -- most likely have to take some tougher measures to ensure the safety of Europeans and perhaps give more investigative powers that so far they've been very, very reluctant to do -- Max.
FOSTER: Chris, we are learning more about the victims of Tuesday's attacks as well.
Peruvian state media are reporting on details of one of the victims we've been hearing about just over the last 24 hours since this attack happened.
Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz was killed at Brussels airport. The 36-year- old Peruvian national was waiting to board a flight with her husband, a Belgian husband and their 3-year-old twin daughters. Her family left the boarding area moments before the blast and they at least survived.
Professional basketball player Sebastien Bellin was seriously wounded in the airport attack. The next image you're about to see may be disturbing, just to warn you. Bellin was standing in line in check-in just by the counter when the blast went off.
Earlier CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with Bellin's father.
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JEAN BELLIN, SEBASTIEN'S FATHER: The force of the blast where he was was sufficient to throw him up six feet up in the air and then he landed back and he got shrapnel really deep there, the shrapnel in his left leg and his right hip.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: It actually --
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COOPER: -- it actually lifted him up in the air?
BELLIN: Yes.
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FOSTER: Well, Bellin is currently in intensive care. We wish him all the best, of course, as we do all the other 200-plus injured.
CNN's John Berman is in New York. I'll hand it to him now.
Hi, John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right, Max, thanks so much for your coverage from Brussels.
Next on CNN, Election Night here in the U.S. Some big wins in Western states for several of the candidates as voters cast their ballots in the presidential election here. We'll bring you the results plus a look at how those candidates are reacting to the attacks in Brussels. Stay with us.
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BERMAN: We'll return to our breaking news out of Brussels in just a moment. But first some big news in the U.S. presidential race.
Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic caucuses in the state of Utah. He's got about 75 percent of the vote there, which means he will do well in the delegate math. All proportional but Hillary Clinton doing very well also. That's Utah right there with Bernie Sanders.
Hillary Clinton, though, won in Arizona with nearly 60 percent of the vote, so she will pick up the lion's share of delegates --
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BERMAN: -- in that state. Idaho at this point too early to project. We're watching the returns coming from the Democratic caucuses in the state of Idaho.
As for the Republicans, CNN is projecting that Donald Trump will win Arizona. That is a winner-take-all state. It means he gets all 58 delegates in that state. You can see he's at 48 percent of the vote. An impressive victory for him in Arizona.
Utah is a different story. Ted Cruz leads in Utah right now with 9 percent of precincts reporting. He's got 67 percent of the vote.
What is key in Utah is if Ted Cruz gets more than 50 percent, he gets all the delegates in that state, which would be 40 delegates. It becomes winner-take-all. So watch the math there if Ted Cruz stays over 50.
Some other news in the race. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, she was slamming two of her Republican rivals during her victory speech on Tuesday -- or during a speech she gave on Tuesday.
She called Ted Cruz and Donald Trump out by name, saying their response to the terror attacks in Brussels, the response is wrong and dangerous. Cruz has advocated patrols of Muslim neighborhoods in the United States while Trump has suggested waterboarding terror suspects.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty on what these candidates are saying.
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SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, a new commander in chief test for the 2016 candidates.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We stand today with the people of Brussels.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: Well, today, of course, is a sad day for the entire civilized world.
SERFATY (voice-over): Many of the presidential hopefuls expressing sympathy for the victims and their families but varying in their responses to how to confront the threat from ISIS and other terrorist groups.
Democrat Hillary Clinton calling for increased surveillance in the U.S. in an interview with Wolf.
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to also toughen, as you say, soft targets with, you know, greater police presence. There is no getting around that.
SERFATY (voice-over): Her rival, Bernie Sanders, also talking up the idea of bolstering intelligence gathering.
SANDERS: We need to have significantly improved intelligence and that intelligence cannot just be done within the United States.
SERFATY (voice-over): Donald Trump offering a typically blunt assessment.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Brussels is a disaster. They have areas of Brussels the cops won't even -- the police won't even go into those areas, they're so dangerous and so radicalized.
SERFATY (voice-over): Ted Cruz repeating his calls for the U.S. to stop accepting Syrian refugees, even going as far as to say police need more power to, quote, "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods" before they become radicalized.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: We need to immediately halt the president's ill-advised plan to bring in tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees.
SERFATY (voice-over): And Trump is doubling down on his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country.
TRUMP: We have no choice and you're going to make exceptions on heads of state and certain people and I'm not saying you don't do that. But we have a real problem and people don't have any idea what's going on.
SERFATY (voice-over): Clinton today rejecting that approach, raising questions about Trump's temperament.
CLINTON: And we need steady, strong, smart minds and hands in the White House.
SERFATY (voice-over): Trump's GOP rivals are also looking to draw contrasts. Cruz and John Kasich both touting stronger ties with NATO after Trump said Monday the U.S. should rethink it's involvement with the alliance.
CRUZ: The day after Donald Trump called for America weakening NATO, withdrawing from NATO, we see Brussels.
KASICH: I would make every effort I could to strengthen the NATO alliance.
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BERMAN: That was Sunlen Serfaty reporting.
In the meantime, New York City's police commissioner speaking out against Ted Cruz. The commissioner not happy with the Republican candidate's calls to step up police enforcement in Muslim neighborhoods, that in the wake of the Brussels attacks.
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WILLIAM BRATTON, NYPD COMMISSIONER: I would remind the senator he lives in the United States of America. And the statements he made today is why he's not going to become president of this country, because we don't need a president that doesn't respect the values that form the foundation of this country.
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BERMAN: During President Obama's visit to Cuba, he spoke about the need for people to come together in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Brussels.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And this is yet another reminder that the world must unite. We must be together regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism.
BERMAN (voice-over): There was criticism of President Obama for not coming back to the United States after these attacks. In fact, he attended a baseball game in Cuba. And as you can see here just a short time ago, he landed in Argentina for the next leg of his trip.
The president has said that terrorists want to disrupt people's lives and by sticking to his schedule --
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BERMAN (voice-over): -- he denies them that goal.
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BERMAN: Let's go back now to Max Foster who is in Brussels right now with our continuing coverage of the attacks there.
FOSTER: Thanks, John.
The terror attacks came just days after Belgian authorities arrested Europe's most wanted man. They captured Salah Abdeslam on Friday in a Brussels suburb not that far from here. Police had been hunting him Abdeslam in connection to last year's terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.
It's believed his arrest moved up the Belgian attackers' timeline. And Deborah Feyerick has more on the thinking around that.
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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The capture of one of the most wanted men in Europe was quickly and cautiously hailed as a victory by Belgian and French authorities, who warned, "Our fight is not over."
Twenty-six-year-old Salah Abdeslam, alive but wounded in the leg following a shoot-out with Belgian security forces Friday. He was one of 10 terrorists, including older brother, Ibrahim, allegedly responsible for the November Paris attacks, which killed 130 people at four separate locations.
Authorities believe his capture and a warning that he was cooperating with police may have accelerated today's attacks already in the works. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The fact that Salah Abdeslam's lawyer said that he was speaking to the police is either a direct message from Salah Abdeslam to his cohorts that they need to continue their planning for attacks immediately or they need to, you know, seek cover.
While the message was very, very clear that I'm in police captivity and I'm talking, therefore, whatever you're going to do, you need to do it quickly because the reality is you could be arrested soon as well.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Abdeslam, a second generation Moroccan, is believed to have spent three months last year driving around Europe in rental cars, allegedly meeting with the Paris attackers and other operatives.
The day of the attacks, investigators believe Abdeslam drove three of the terrorists to the soccer stadium. He then ditched his suicide vest in a trash can and fled. His brother, Ibrahim, blew himself up outside a cafe.
MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was meant to have been suicide bomber. His belt didn't go off or he chickened out at the last minute. We still don't know.
FEYERICK (voice-over): He spent the next four months eluding capture. There was speculation Abdeslam may have traveled to Syria. Authorities were shocked when they raided a safe house in Belgium last week and discovered his fingerprints in an apartment containing bomb- making material.
Abdeslam grew up in the Molenbeek neighborhood, not far from where he was captured.
WEISS: The human intelligence that Belgian officials can get off him is going to be massive.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Abdeslam's other brother, Mohammed, still lives with the area and sat down with Erin Burnett after the Paris attacks.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Do you still think, "I love my brother?"
MOHAMED ABDESLAM, SALAH'S BROTHER (through translator): These are my brothers. I love them. That's for sure. After all they've done, do I admire what they've done?
No. My family and I do not.
FEYERICK: Two potentially key suspects remain at large. Both of them are directly linked to Abdeslam. One of them is a childhood friend from Molenbeek. It's believed that he and Abdeslam traveled at least twice to Paris the week before the attacks there -- Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BERMAN: That was Deborah Feyerick --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
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BERMAN: -- that was Deborah Feyerick reporting.
CNN now has another projection to make in the race for president right now. CNN is projecting that Ted Cruz will win in Utah. I believe we are projecting that Ted Cruz will win in Utah.
Control room, can you verify that?
But what we are not projecting yet is whether Ted Cruz will get more than 50 percent of the vote there. You can see 14 percent of precincts are reporting, 14 percent of precincts are reporting and, yes, we are projecting definitively that Ted Cruz will win the state.
What is not known yet is whether or not he will get more than 50 percent.
Why is that important?
Because if he gets more than 50 percent, Utah becomes winner-take-all in terms of delegates. He would get all 40 delegates in that state, which means it is a better day for him today and he would have some bragging rights going ahead in this delegate race to 1,237, which is what is needed on the first ballot at the convention. Is Chris Moody with us right now?
All right. We are awaiting more information about what's going on in Utah. We will get that to you as soon as it comes in.
Meantime, let's go back to Max Foster in Brussels.
FOSTER: As you follow that, I'm joined here by journalist Dirk Coosemans (ph). He joins me now. He was at a raid on Friday, where Salah Abdeslam was captured. And this heightened tensions, security tensions within the city and then, of course, we had the --
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FOSTER: -- attacks yesterday. And the feeling is the security authorities here in Brussels think there are links between the Paris network of attacks and the attacks here.
Is that right?
What are they saying to you?
DIRK COOSEMANS (PH), JOURNALIST: Yes. Certainly the same group. We have Abdeslam caught and then this happens, so there is a link between the two.
Our best guess is that Laachraoui, a guy from the Paris attacks, who had a logistical role in the Paris attacks, is one of the guys who's in the -- is one of the main targets now for the Belgian justice and is behind these attacks in Brussels, too. But that's only a guess. We are not sure yet.
FOSTER: Where is the search focused?
Is it focused on Brussels or beyond?
COOSEMANS (PH): It's Brussels and the suburbs of Brussels. Yesterday, there was a search in a house, in an apartment in Schaerbeek, where they found nail bombs and stuff.
FOSTER: It was a taxi driver that drew them to that apartment?
COOSEMANS (PH): Taxi driver, yes --
FOSTER: He took the suspects to the airport.
COOSEMANS (PH): -- three guys were picked up by a taxi driver. They had two bags with them and they were mad because they had five bags with them, two other bags with bombs but they were left behind because the taxi driver didn't have enough space in his trunk. So otherwise, there would have been five bombs apparently and not three.
FOSTER: What's the theory about the third attacker, who didn't -- so they found more bombs, didn't they, and another bomb at the airport, am I right in saying that?
But the third attacker didn't use that bomb. He left.
COOSEMANS (PH): He left.
FOSTER: And there were more bombs at the apartment.
So what's the thinking about that?
COOSEMANS (PH): It's Salah Abdeslam all over again. Abdeslam escaped in Paris. He left. He was there to kill himself, a suicide terrorist. And this one was there to be a suicide terrorist and he didn't do it. So we've got a second.
FOSTER: Yes, but one of the theories was that Abdeslam chickened out. He sort of didn't have the confidence to go through with the attack.
COOSEMANS (PH): Perhaps. It's same with this guy. We don't know. The bomb he had, the third guy was the biggest bomb of the three. It must have been they really wanted to blow it up but they didn't do it. We don't know why. The guy's on the run.
FOSTER: And in terms of the metro attack, we're getting so little information about what happened there.
Is the working theory that there was a suicide attacker there so they're not searching for anyone, so they don't have to release the information? COOSEMANS (PH): OK, that's one theory but we don't know -- we just know less about the Maelbeek attack because we don't have pictures there from perpetrators. We don't have the story like we have for Schaerbeek or for the searching the houses. We don't -- we know less about Maelbeek. The police knows less. They don't know where to search for Maelbeek.
FOSTER: OK. Well, let's -- it's an ongoing investigation. Thank you very much for bringing us your insight on that.
Still very early in the investigation as well if you think about it because this attack happened less than 24 hours ago still. Authorities believe the terror attacks happened for a couple of reasons as well. And we're going to take you through that process as we get that information.
We'll be back in just a moment with the very latest.
