Timeline: Belgium’s long and troubled history of jihadism

Yesterday's attacks at Brussels airport and one of the city's central metro stations, which has reportedly left at least 26 people dead, are the most deadly episode to date in Belgium's troubled history of jihadism.

In recent years, counterterrorism officials across the EU have become increasingly nervous about the number of Belgian nationals who have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria, as well as the ease with which firearms can be bought in the country.

Some critics highlight what they say is the country’s poor record on integrating Muslim communities – the rundown district of Molenbeek, which has dispatched dozens of foreign fighters to the Middle East, has an unemployment rate of 30 per cent, treble the national average.

The country’s small size and fragmented system of governance make it an ideal spot for arms-smuggling, according to security experts. Whatever the cause, Belgium’s experiences of jihadism go back more than a decade.

September 2001 Members of an international terrorist cell based in Molenbeek assassinate Ahmad Shah Massoud, a powerful anti-Taliban military commander, in Afghanistan two days before the September 11th attacks in the United States. November 2005 Muriel Degauque, a Belgian Muslim convert, blows herself up in Baghdad, killing five. She becomes Europe's first female suicide bomber.

2010 The Islamist group Sharia4Belgium is set up, initially to promote Islamic law in the country. It eventually recruits dozens of young Muslims to fight for Isis in Syria. On a per capita basis Belgium has more foreign fighters in Syria than any other EU state.

May 2014 An attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels on the eve of federal, regional and European parliamentary elections leaves three people dead and one badly injured.

June 2014 Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year old French citizen who spent time in Syria, is charged with the Brussels museum attack. He is believed to have bought his weapons in Brussels' Molenbeek district.

January 9th, 2015 Two days after terrorists kill 12 people in an attack on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, Amedy Coulibaly, a French national, kills four hostages in a kosher supermarket in Paris. He later fatally shoots a police officer. He is also believed to have bought his weapons in Molenbeek.

January 15th, 2015

Fifteen people are arrested in a series of raids against suspected Islamist militants who prosecutors believe were plotting to murder police officers in the southeastern town of

Verviers

.

November 13th, 2015

Multiple attacks in Paris leave 130 people dead. Police identify the ringleader as

Abdelhamid Abaaoud

, a 27-year-old Belgian citizen who also helped organise the Verviers plot and liaised with Nemmouche.

Seven attackers die, but Salah Abdeslam, one of three brothers involved in the assault, returns to Belgium even though police check his car at the border with France. Abaaoud also remains at large.

November 14th, 2015

The hunt for Abdeslam goes cold, after evidence is found that he changed cars in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek. Questions are raised over Belgium’s handling of the security threat.

Jan Jambon

, Belgian interior minister, singles out Brussels — and particularly Molenbeek — as a weak spot in Belgium’s security.

November 18th, 2015

Abaaoud dies after a seven-hour shootout with police in Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris.

November 21st, 2015

Brussels endures five days of lockdown as

Charles Michel

, Belgian prime minister, warns of a “serious and imminent” threat of a Paris-style attack.

December 21st, 2015

Belgian police detain six people as part of an investigation into a planned terrorist attack in central Brussels on New Year’s eve.

January 16th, 2016

Fifteen people arrested in raids against suspected Islamist militants.

March 15th, 2016

Police raid on an address in the Brussels district of Forest leads to an extended gun battle which results in the death of one suspect. Abdeslam’s fingerprints are found in the apartment.

March 18th, 2016

Abdeslam is captured alive in police raid in Molenbeek. Four other suspects are arrested. Questions are raised over how he managed to hide out in Belgium for so long. Abdeslam tells investigators he was planning to strike again.

March 22nd, 2016

Two bombs at Brussels airport and another at a metro station near the EU headquarters kill at least 26 people, according to early reports. The attacks come a day after Jambon warned that jihadis could be looking for a way to counter-attack after Abdeslam’s arrest. Brussels is largely put under lockdown, with many public transport services cancelled.

– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016)