Brussels had already been on high alert after a key suspect in the Paris attacks was arrested [Xinhua]
Belgian police raided more than 150 garages, storage areas, various properties and arrested 12 suspects in an anti-terrorism operation targeting the capital Brussels and other towns Saturday.
Now weapons were found in the raids, however.
Security has been tightened in Belgium and neighboring France after two police offers were killed by an alleged Islamic State operative in a suburb near Paris last week.
In November, Islamic radical terrorists carried out a series of attacks in Paris which killed more than 130.
On March 22, 32 people were killed when terrorists attacked Brussels airport and a subway line.
During the early Saturday morning operation, police swooped down on 16 municipalities including that of Molenbeek, which some allege is an area frequented by radicals.
Lode Vanoost, a former deputy speaker of the Belgian Parliament, says that Molenbeek has deteriorated over the years because it has been neglected by the municipal and capital city governments and the federal institutions responsible for social welfare.
Shortly after the November 13 Paris attacks, Vanoost wrote that “the Paris attackers came to live in Molenbeek not because it was some sort of place to be for people with extremist ideas, for people who sympathize with ISIS and the likes. On the contrary, these terrorists-to-be came to live there to disappear in a sea of innocent people who just happened to look like them”.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
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