CLOSE Two suicide bombers in the terror attacks that killed at least 31 people in Brussels have been named by Belgian state TV RTBF. A manhunt for a third suspect is underway. VPC 
 
 A picture released on March 22, 2016 by the Belgian federal police prosecutor shows a screengrab of the airport CCTV camera showing three suspects of the attacks at Brussels Airport, in Zaventem. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Belgian police, tipped off by a taxi driver after a pair of terror bombs killed at least 31 people, discovered a bomb-making factory in a Brussels neighborhood and a note left in an abandoned computer by a suicide bomber who feared being swept up in an anti-terror manhunt, officials said Wednesday. 
 
 In response to Tuesday's attacks at Brussels airport and a downtown subway stop, Belgian authorities launched a massive manhunt for several suspects they believe are linked to a Belgian terror network and may be preparing to strike again. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the explosions. 
 
 Paul Van Tigchelt, head of Belgium’s terrorism threat body, told reporters Wednesday that the country is keeping the terrorism threat level at its highest mark, indicating danger of an imminent attack. 
 
 Police are especially keen to find one man seen in a surveillance photo with two other terrorists at the airport Tuesday morning. The man, wearing a hat and light-colored clothing, was pushing a cart carrying a 35-pound bomb, but abandoned it and fled for unknown reasons. Authorities said a higher death toll was avoided because the bomb did not go off. It was later detonated by police in a controlled explosion. 
 
 Authorities have not identified the man, but confirmed the names of two of the four terrorists as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, an airport suicide bomber identified by a fingerprint, and his brother, Khalid, 27, who was the subway suicide bomber at the metro station. The two brothers were known to the police for past crimes unrelated to terrorism, RTBF reported. 
 
 The man on the left, who also died in the attack, was identified as bombmaker Najim Laachraoui, 24, The Washington Post reported, quoting an Arab intelligence official and a European intelligence official, and the Associated Press, quoting an unnamed European intelligence official and a French police official. 
 
 Laachraoui is believed to have made the suicide vests used in the Paris attacks in November that killed 130 people, a French police official told The Associated Press, adding that Laachraoui’s DNA was found on all of the vests as well as in a Brussels apartment where they were made. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. 
 
 Authorities caught a big break when a taxi driver who saw the surveillance photo in the media came forward to direct them to a house in the Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek where they discovered a bomb-making factory, complete with explosives, chemicals and nails used as shrapnel. They also found an Islamic State flag. 
 
 While scouring the neighborhood, police also found in a trash can the computer containing a suicide note from Ibrahim El Bakraoui. 
 
 In the note, which was also written as a partial last will and testament, El Bakraoui expressed concern that he might get caught in a manhunt spawned by last week's arrest in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam, who police say confessed to his role in the Paris attacks. 
 
 Abdeslam's lawyer said his client is cooperating with police. Belgian authorities said Abdeslam planned to commit another attack and had a large network of associates. 
 
 "Being in a hurry, I don't know what to do, being searched for everywhere, not being safe. If it drags on it could end up with me in a prison cell next to him," El Bakraoui wrote in the suicide note in an apparent reference to Abdeslam. 
 
 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said one of the suspects, identified by a Turkish official later as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was deported to The Netherlands in July but Belgium ignored Turkey's warning he was a militant, the Associated Press reported. 
 
 The official who later identified the suspect as El Bakraoui also corrected Erdogan’s account to say the suspect had been deported to The Netherlands, not Belgium. El Bakraoui was caught at the Turkish-Syrian border. The official said Turkey warned both Belgium and the Netherlands that he was a “foreign terrorist fighter.” 
 
 The official says Dutch authorities later allowed El Bakraoui to go free because Belgian authorities could not establish any ties to terrorism, the Associated Press reported The official cannot be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. 
 
 AP also reported the Islamic State has trained as least 400 fighters to target Europe in deadly waves of attacks, deploying interlocking terror cells like the ones that struck Brussels and Paris with orders to choose the time, place and method for maximum carnage. 
 
 The officials, including European and Iraqi intelligence officials and a French lawmaker who follows the jihadi networks, described camps in Syria, Iraq and possibly the former Soviet bloc where attackers are trained to attack the West. Some of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the information. 
 
 Brussels Airport remained closed Wednesday as investigators continued to gather evidence. Government offices, schools and residents across the country held a moment of silence for the victims. 
 
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 Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Brussels on Friday to discuss the deadly attacks with top Belgian and European officials. 
 
 State Department spokesman John Kirby says Kerry will visit the Belgian capital to "formally express the condolences of the United States for the loss of life" in Tuesday's bombings at the Brussels airport and subway. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1MlB94S ||||| Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui blew themselves up at airport and metro respectively, prosecutors confirm, as police hunt surviving suspect 
 
 Two of the suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the twin Brussels attacks that killed at least 31 people on Tuesday have been formally named by prosecutors, as police searched for a suspect captured on CCTV at Zaventem airport. 
 
 The Belgian federal prosecutor, Frédéric van Leeuw, confirmed media reports that Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29, detonated one of two devices that exploded at Zaventem airport, killing himself and 11 others and injuring more than 90. 
 
 
 
 His younger brother Khalid, 27, was responsible for a third explosion, just over an hour later in a metro carriage at Maelbeek station on the rue de la Loi, near offices of the European commission, van Leeuw told a news conference. At least 14 people died in that attack, with more than 130 wounded. 
 
 Brussels attacks: el-Bakraoui brothers 'named as suicide bombers' – live Read more 
 
 Van Leeuw said the two airport bombs exploded within seconds of each other at 7.58am, near the check-in desks of rows 11 and two in the main departure hall. Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was identified by his fingerprints. 
 
 But two others from a group of three men caught on a CCTV camera wheeling loaded baggage trolleys across the hall have not been identified. One of these men was the second airport suicide bomber, the other a suspect who survived after leaving behind a suitcase containing a “very large explosive charge” and who is being actively sought. 
 
 Belgian media have suggested the surviving attacker was Najim Laachraoui, but reports that he had been arrested were later retracted. 
 
 Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which plunged the Belgian capital into a day-long lockdown, led to heightened security at airports across Europe, and drew swift and strong condemnation from other European capitals, the US and Russia. 
 
 
 
 Shortly after Brussels residents, EU staff including the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and members of the Belgian royal family observed a minute’s silence in memory of the dead, van Leeuw confirmed the death toll from the attacks stood at 31 but was likely to rise further, with 270 injured. 
 
 Timeline of the Brussels attacks Read more 
 
 A taxi driver had come forward after recognising CCTV images of the three airport suspects as men he picked up from an apartment block and dropped off at the airport, van Leeuw said, adding that police had subsequently raided the building in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek and discovered 15kg of explosives, detonators and a suitcase filled with nails and screws. 
 
 A series of other raids in the same street had led to one arrest, the prosecutor added, and the discovery in a rubbish bin of a computer containing a statement from Ibrahim el-Bakraoui in which he wrote of feeling “in a rush, not knowing what to do, being hunted everywhere, not being safe, and if this goes on, ending up in a cell”. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Soldiers stand guard at the entrance of Brussels’ central station on Wednesday. Photograph: Aurore Belot/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Van Leeuw said the two el-Bakraoui brothers, both Belgian nationals, had long criminal records but had not so far been associated with terrorism. It has emerged since the bloody attacks in Paris last November that killed 130 people, however, that they were part of that terror cell. 
 
 One el-Bakraoui brother is known to have rented a flat in the Forest area of south-west Brussels that was raided by police last Tuesday, leading three days later to the capture of Salah Abdeslam, the only known survivor among the 10 Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers who attacked the Bataclan concert hall, Stade de France and a string of cafes and restaurants in Paris. 
 
 One of the brothers is also known to have rented a hideout in Charleroi in Belgium where two more of the Paris attackers, ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Bilal Hadfi, who blew himself up at the Stade de France, met before heading to the French capital. 
 
 One of the el-Bakraoui brothers is also believed to have provided ammunition and weapons for the Paris attacks, RTBF reported. 
 
 Laachraoui, 24, is also suspected of involvement in the Paris attacks. He reportedly travelled to Syria in 2013 and was previously identified by his alias, Soufiane Kayal. He was travelling with Abdeslam in September 2015 when their car was stopped at the Hungarian border with Austria. Also in the car was Mohammed Belkaid, who was shot dead by a police sniper in a Forest raid. 
 
 Laachraoui’s DNA was also found at another apartment used by the Paris attackers in Auvelais. near the central Belgian city of Namur, and at another suspected hideout in Schaerbeek. RTBF said he could have been one of the bombmakers involved in the Paris attacks. 
 
 Belgium raised its terror alert to its highest level in the aftermath of the attacks. The airport will remain closed on Wednesday and Thursday and the metro will be running a reduced service, but schools were opening as normal. 
 
 The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, who was travelling to Brussels on Wednesday, urged the EU parliament to authorise a full Europe-wide passenger name record. “It has waited too long to adopt this text,” he said. “It must examine and adopt it in April. It’s time.” 
 
 The suspects 
 
 
 
 Ibrahim el-Bakraoui 
 
 El-Bakraoui blew himself up at Brussels’ main airport. He and his brother, Khalid, were well known to Belgian police because of their long history of involvement in organised crime. They had clear links to the Paris attacks and were among the suspects on the run. 
 
 
 
 Unidentified suspect 
 
 The second bomber at the airport. 
 
 Khalid el-Bakraoui 
 
 Khalid el-Bakroui was responsible for the explosion in the metro carriage at Maelbeek station on the rue de la Loi, which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 130. Like his brother Ibrahim, the airport bomber, he had a criminal history and links to the Paris attacks. He had rented the flat in Forest, south-west Brussels, that was raided by police last Tuesday and where DNA traces of Salah Abdeslam, the surviving Paris attacker, had been found. 
 
 Najim Laachraoui 
 
 Laachraoui was identified as a key suspect in the Paris attacks the day before the Brussels bombings. His DNA was found in two hideouts used by Paris attackers and also on explosive material, prosecutors have said. Laachraoui was travelling under an alias with Salah Abdeslam in September last year when their Mercedes was stopped at the Hungarian border with Austria. RTBF reported that he could have been one of the bombmakers in the Paris attacks. 
 
 Haroon Siddique ||||| A police car believed to be transporting terror suspect Salah Abdeslam leaves the prison in Bruges, Belgium Thursday, March 24, 2016. Abdeslam, the chief suspect in last year's deadly Paris attacks, is... (Associated Press) 
 
 A police car believed to be transporting terror suspect Salah Abdeslam leaves the prison in Bruges, Belgium Thursday, March 24, 2016. Abdeslam, the chief suspect in last year's deadly Paris attacks, is facing a hearing in Brussels, amid increasing signs that the same Islamic State cell was behind attacks... (Associated Press) 
 
 BRUSSELS (AP) — A second attacker is suspected of taking part in the bombing this week of a Brussels subway train and may be at large, according to Belgian and French media reports, amid growing signs that the same Islamic State cell was behind the attacks in Brussels and bloodshed in Paris last year. 
 
 The chief suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was summoned to court in Brussels on Thursday morning after his arrest last week in the Belgian capital. His lawyer said Abdeslam is not fighting extradition to France, which wants him to face potential terrorism charges. 
 
 The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels and Paris, which have laid bare European security failings and prompted calls for better intelligence cooperation and a tougher response to Islamic State extremists. 
 
 Belgian prosecutors have said at least four people were involved in Tuesday's attacks on the Brussels airport and a subway train, including brothers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui, identified as suicide bombers. European security officials identified another suicide bomber as Najim Laachraoui, a suspected bombmaker for the Paris attacks. 
 
 Prosecutors have said another suspected participant in the airport attack is at large, a man in a hat seen in surveillance images. 
 
 Belgian state broadcaster RTBF and France's Le Monde and BFM television reported Thursday that a fifth attacker may also be at large: a man filmed by surveillance cameras in the Brussels metro on Tuesday carrying a large bag alongside Khalid El Bakraoui. RTBF said it is not clear whether that man was killed in the attack. 
 
 Prosecutors, who have not said how many people overall may have taken part in the bombings, did not immediately respond to the reports. 
 
 Attention turned Thursday to Paris attacks suspect Abdeslam, who evaded police in two countries for four months before Friday's capture in the Molenbeek neighborhood where he grew up. He was shot in the leg during the arrest. 
 
 The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said Abdeslam and two other suspected accomplices appeared in court Thursday. 
 
 Abdeslam's lawyer, Sven Mary, told reporters at the courthouse that he asked for a one-month delay on any transfer while he studies the large dossier, but that Abdeslam "wants to leave for France as quickly as possible." 
 
 A helicopter circled overhead, and the area was under extraordinarily heavy security, as are many parts of the Belgian capital. 
 
 France is seeking Abdeslam's extradition to face potential terrorism charges for his involvement in the Nov. 13 attacks on a Paris rock concert, stadium and cafes, which killed 130 people. Several attackers were also killed. 
 
 Abdeslam, 26, a French citizen who grew up in Brussels' heavily immigrant Molenbeek neighborhood, slipped through police fingers on multiple occasions, including the day after the attacks. 
 
 Evidence is mounting that the extremists may have launched this week's attacks in Brussels in haste because they feared authorities were closing in on them after Abdeslam's arrest. 
 
 Later Thursday, European Union justice and interior ministers are holding an emergency meeting prompted by the Brussels attacks. 
 
 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Ibrahim El Bakraoui was caught in June 2015 near Turkey's border with Syria and deported, at his own request, to the Netherlands, with Ankara warning Dutch and Belgian officials that he was a "foreign terrorist fighter." But other Turkish officials said he was released from Dutch custody due to lack of evidence of involvement in extremism. 
 
 Belgium is holding three days of national mourning after the attacks on the EU capital. Security remains tight, but barriers were removed around the subway station hit by the attack, Maelbeek. The airport will remain closed until at least Saturday. 
 
 Many of the dead remained unidentified, partly because of the severity of devastation caused by the nail-packed bombs detonated in crowds. Eleven people were confirmed dead at the airport, 20 inside the Maelbeek subway station. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press reporter Angela Charlton in Brussels contributed to this report.
– One of the two brothers who detonated a suicide bomb in Brussels on Monday was clearly worried about getting caught just prior to the attacks. Authorities revealed a note written by Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, that reads: "Being in a hurry, I don't know what to do, being searched for everywhere, not being safe. If it drags on it could end up with me in a prison cell next to him." The "him" is believed to refer to Salah Abdeslam, the suspected terrorist ringleader arrested last week, reports USA Today. The note was found on a computer that had been dumped into a street trash can outside an apartment building in Brussels, reports ABC News. A taxi driver led police to the building after realizing that he had driven El Bakraoui and two others to the airport on Monday morning. Also on Tuesday, authorities clarified some confusing earlier accounts of the investigation: They now say that Ibrahim El Bakraoui is the man seen in the middle of two others in a surveillance photo from the airport. On the left is a fellow suicide bomber, still unidentified, and on the right is another suspect, clad in white, who remains at large. Some media reports have identified him as Najim Laachraoui, who is suspected of paying a role in the Paris attacks, but authorities have not officially identified Laachraoui as a suspect in Brussels. Ibrahim El Bakraoui's brother, Khalid, 27, meanwhile, is accused of detonating a suicide bomb on the Brussels subway train. In another development, a Turkish official says Ibrahim El Bakraoui was arrested in June at the Turkey-Syria border and deported to the Netherlands. Turkey then warned both the Netherlands and Belgium that he was a "foreign terrorist fighter," reports AP.