Brussels Bombing Update

[Content Note: Terrorism; death; Islamophobia. Please keep this an image-free thread.]

Here are some updates on yesterday's terrorist attack in Brussels, for which the Islamic State has now claimed responsibility:

Via Buzzfeed: The Belgian health minister has said that 10 people were killed in the airport blasts and 21 were killed in the subway station attack. At least 260 people were injured. He also "confirmed Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was pictured in the middle of the CCTV footage released by police and his brother Khalid was the bomber at Maelbeek Metro."

The two brothers who mounted the attacks, both of whom are believed to have died, are "Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, [who] blew himself up in the Belgian capital's subway system while his 30-year-old sibling Ibrahim detonated a bomb at the city's airport. Both had been jailed for violent crimes in the past and had links to one of the Paris attackers."

A third man in the CCTV footage was thought to be 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui, and a massive search is underway for him. There have been reports that Laachraoui is in custody after being detained in Brussels, but there's been no official confirmation.

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[CN: Video may autoplay at third link] As I've mentioned across In the News posts, there have been other terrorist attacks in other parts of the world in the last couple of weeks: An attack by al-Qaeda in Ivory Coast; several attacks by IS in Turkey; and another attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria.

These attacks have not gotten the same amount of attention for a number of reasons, not least of which is because the victims of those attacks are themselves mostly Muslims.

Which doesn't fit into the "clash of civilizations" narrative in which attacks on Western countries are frequently framed.

But it's important to remember that most of the Islamic State's victims are Muslim. And that extremist Islamic attacks on Muslims are a primary cause of the refugee crisis.

So when you hear some fuckhead like Ted Cruz talking about how we can't be sure if refugees are terrorists, and how we need to start policing Muslim communities, note that he is deliberately obfuscating the fact that Muslims are the primary victims of the terrorists he implies any Muslim might be.