More than two dozen killed in coordinated attacks in Brussels

By: Mark Hersch

At least 26 people are dead and more than one hundred others wounded following a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday.

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“What we feared has happened – we were hit by blind attacks,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said at a news conference, according to multiple reports.

Two blasts rocked Zaventem airport while another struck a metro station near European Union buildings.

Belgium’s federal prosecutor confirmed that a suicide bomber struck the airport, adding that the country’s terror threat level is now “maximum.”

Brussels is now on lockdown following the terrorist attacks, with bus, metro and tram services suspended in the Belgian capital.

Zaventem is also shuttered, with the facility having been evacuated in the aftermath of the blast there.

A White House official said President Obama has been apprised of the explosions in Brussels. The president, who's traveling in Cuba, is expected to make public comments later Tuesday morning.

U.S. officials will continue to be in close contact with their Belgian counterparts, the official added.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence committee, pointed to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as culprits in the attack.

“The terrorist bombings in Brussels this morning — focused on the airport and transit system — bear all the hallmarks of an ISIS-inspired, or ISIS-coordinated, attack," he said in a statement early Tuesday.

“In the wake of these attacks, we here in the U.S. and our allies across Europe must be on alert for possible copy-cat attackers who activate in the wake of these bombings," Schiff added.

He warned that encrypted communications may play a role in terrorists coordinating their attacks.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday condemned the massacre, urging a coordinated European response against terrorist groups.

"Terrorists struck Brussels, but it was Europe that was targeted — and all the world that is concerned," he said, according to the Associated Press. "This war will be long."

EU Council President Donald Tusk also slammed the attacks, vowing his organization would help orchestrate continent-wide countermeasures.

"These attacks mark another low by the terrorists in service of hatred and violence," he said, according to AP. 

"[The EU] will fulfill its role to help Brussels, Belgium and Europe as a whole counter the terror threat which we are all facing."

Tuesday’s bombings follow last Friday's capture of a suspect in last year’s terror attacks.

Salah Abdeslam, 26, was injured during a shootout with authorities in the Molenbeek area of Brussels but survived and was subsequently captured.

Abdeslam, a French national who grew up in Brussels, allegedly fled for Belgium after helping coordinate the Paris attacks last November.

Coordinated attacks across the French capital killed 130 people, with ISIS later claiming it inspired the bloodshed.

--Jordan Fabian contributed to this report, which was updated at 8:40 a.m.