World

FBI Examining Laptops Linked to Belgian Terrorists

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 5:10 am | < 1 Minute Read

Damage is seen inside the departure terminal following the March 22, 2016 bombing at Zaventem Airport, in these undated photos made available to Reuters by the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, in Brussels, Belgium, March 29, 2016. Het Nieuwsblad via REUTERSATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED BY REUTERS AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE. BELGIUM OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN BELGIUM. — The damaged departure terminal following the bombing at Zaventem Airport, last Tuesday. (Het Nieuwsblad newspaper via Reuters)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining laptop computers linked to suspects in last week’s deadly Brussels bombings as investigators work to unravel the terror network behind the attacks.

The laptops arrived in the U.S. on Friday and now are being examined by FBI experts, a U.S. government source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

It is not yet clear whether FBI technicians have recovered any significant data from the equipment the Belgians turned over, the source told Reuters.

U.S. officials have pledged support for Belgian efforts to crack down on the terrorists behind the March 22 suicide bomb attacks at a Brussels Metro station and the city’s Zaventem Airport, among other recent attacks.

The death toll from the attack on the airport, and the subsequent bombing of a rush hour metro train, rose to 35 people on Monday.

On Saturday President Barack Obama reported that a team of FBI agents was also helping investigators on the ground in Belgium.

U.S. officials have said that Belgium’s security and intelligence agencies are overstretched and also hampered by internal political, financial, and cultural problems, including a linguistic divide between French-speaking and Flemish-speaking investigators.