An Algerian killed in a shootout with Brussels police this week has been identified as a man sought under an assumed name for plotting November’s Islamist attacks in Paris, Belgian public broadcaster RTBF said on Friday.
The gunman killed on Tuesday and named by police as Mohamed Belkaid used the name Samir Bouzid, RTBF said. “Bouzid” has been on French and Belgian wanted lists since December, when evidence emerged of him making a cash transfer from Brussels to a woman killed with other suspects in Paris five days after the attacks.
RTBF described Belkaid, known as Bouzid, as an accomplice of fugitive suspect Salah Abdeslam, whose fingerprints and DNA were found at the apartment where Belkaid was killed. The broadcaster quoted an unidentified source as saying it was “more than likely” Abdeslam had fled the scene of Tuesday’s police raid.
Investigators have declined comment beyond saying that Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found in the apartment.