ISIS claims responsibility for Belgium machete attack

By sending terrorists and influencing others to carry out terror attacks in its name, ISIS has managed to sow death and destruction around the world and will continue to do so until it is stopped by force.

The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a terror attack in Charleroi, Belgium, in which an Islamic terrorist attacked two policewomen with a machete and seriously wounded them on Saturday.

ISIS said the attack was revenge carried out by one of its “soldiers.”

A statement by the ISIS-affiliated Aamaq News Agency said the attack was in response to the “Crusader coalition’s” military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

On June 27, Belgium authorities announced the deployment six F-16s to the Middle East for a year as part of the US-led coalition. Until returning home in July 2015, Belgian warplanes took part in earlier anti-ISIS missions over Iraq.

Belgian authorities identified the terrorist, who was shot dead by Belgian police, as a as a 33-year-old Algerian known to police for prior criminal offenses.

Belgian media reported that he has been in the country illegally since 2012, despite two separate orders to have him leave.

Belgian authorities recognized the incident as a terror attack. The terrorist shouted “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is Great” — during the attack, a phrase often used by Muslim terrorists during attacks.

“Since there are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive, the federal prosecutor’s office decided to take over the investigation from the district prosecutor’s office of Charleroi,” the federal office said in a statement.

Both policewomen were “severely injured in the face and neck” in the attack, and placed in an artificial coma to allow surgeons to operate on them.

“We must keep a cool head,” Prime Minister Charles Michel said. “We must avoid panic, of course — not give in to terror. That’s the trap that has been set for us.”

Belgium has been on high alert since the March suicide bombings claimed by ISIS terrorists that killed 32 people in Brussels.

“We know we must be constantly, constantly vigilant,” Michel said.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
AP contributed to this report.