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Brussels Suicide Bomber Wasn’t One of Ours, Bahamas Says

It was a minor mystery in the terrorism investigation that has gripped Europe: Was one of the suicide bombers who carried out the devastating attacks on Brussels on Tuesday really a citizen of the Bahamas?

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Brothers in Arms

A short explanation of how brothers keep turning up as suspects in terrorist attacks.

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A short explanation of how brothers keep turning up as suspects in terrorist attacks.CreditCredit...Interpol / Handout/European Pressphoto Agency

The bomber — Khalid el-Bakraoui, 27 — blew himself up Tuesday morning at a subway station in the Belgian capital, more than an hour after his older brother, Ibrahim, 29, and an accomplice set off suicide bombs at Brussels Airport.

On Wednesday, after the Belgian authorities identified the two brothers as having been among the attackers, some investigators, journalists and others were surprised to learn that an Interpol arrest warrant, showing that the younger Bakraoui was sought on terrorism-related charges, listed him as a citizen of both Belgium and the Bahamas.

Although much remains unknown about the brothers, who grew up in a working-class Brussels neighborhood and had criminal records in Belgium, there was nothing in the record to suggest any connection to the Bahamas, a tranquil island nation in the Caribbean, and a popular tourist destination.

And indeed, there isn’t one.

“The suspect in question was NOT a Bahamian national,” the Foreign Ministry of the Bahamas said in a statement on Thursday. “Belgian authorities have advised that the suspect was a Moroccan citizen at birth, who later assumed Belgian nationality.”

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Terror in Brussels: A Timeline of Horror

A breakdown of the locations in Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels.

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A breakdown of the locations in Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels.CreditCredit...Belgian Federal Police, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

According to the statement, the listing of Khalid el-Bakraoui as a citizen of the Bahamas was the result of “a clerical error” by Belgian officials, who had the warrant issued last year. “It was NOT the Bahamas that made this entry,” the statement added.

The statement noted that the Bahamas “expresses its prayers and sympathy to the government and people of the Kingdom of Belgium over the tragic loss of life, injury and destruction during the recent terrorist attacks,” and said the Bahamas “undertook the necessary due diligence,” in consultation with the Belgian authorities, after receiving queries from journalists.

The Foreign Ministry asked news organizations to “retract the articles and news reports which alleged that the suspect was a Bahamian national.”

Since the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, which were largely planned and executed by militants based in Belgium, the Belgian government has been criticized for its fractured governance, deficient information-sharing, and troubled security apparatus.

The country’s justice and interior ministers acknowledged on Thursday that their agencies had failed to act with alacrity after the Turkish government apprehended the elder Bakraoui brother last June and warned Belgium that he might be a violent extremist.

How the purported clerical error occurred was not clear on Thursday. Although they share a first letter, in an alphabetical listing of Interpol’s member countries, there are four other countries between the Bahamas — Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados and Belarus — and Belgium.

Karen Zraick contributed reporting.

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