Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Brussels Bombings Tied to Paris Attacks; Friends and Families Search for Loved Ones; Politics in Wake of Brussels Attacks; Muslims in U.S. Town Decry Cruz's Patrol Call; Plane Debris Likely from MH- 370; Intel Suggests Brussels Attack Part of Wider Plot; Details Emerge about Brussels Attacks Victims. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired March 24, 2016 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[03:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Not just in Belgium, but across the continent ISIS operatives may have picked out potential targets. Right now, a massive manhunt is under way for the man in white, seen in the airport surveillance photo from Tuesday. Authorities says they're not sure who he is or how many others may be involved in planning the attacks.

Turkish officials, though, say one of the airport bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was detained in Turkey last summer. They say they notified Belgian authorities, who said they couldn't link him to terrorism. Bakraoui was then sent to the Netherlands and eventually let go.

CNN correspondents are covering all of the angles of the story from several locations around Brussels. In just a moment, we'll get to Atika Shubert's report on the military hospital working to identify attack victims.

But we begin with CNN's Phil Black, who's reporting on how authorities are connecting the Brussels bombers to each other and onwards to the Paris attacks back in November.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day after the bombings, the Belgian capital remains on high alert, after the attacks which brought death and destruction to the heart of Europe.

These are the three men who carried out the attack on Brussels airport. Prosecutors have said two suicide bombers died at the scene. One confirmed as Ibrahim el Bakraoui. Belgian investigators now say they believe the second bomber was Najim Laachraoui, a man wanted for his role in the Paris attacks.

The pair detonated two bombs inside the departure hall at Brussels airport, killing at least 10 people. One of the attackers had left behind a third bomb; containing large amounts of unstable explosives, it detonated moments after the bomb squad arrived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw doors flying, glass, ceiling coming down.

BLACK (voice-over): Across town, in the center of the city, a bomb exploded on a metro train. Investigators believe the brother of airport brother Ibrahim, Khalid El Bakraoui, detonated the device. Underground terror for morning travelers, killing many, injuring hundreds.

Survivors desperately fleeing through the devastation and the dark.

BRIAN CARROLL, WITNESS: I felt an explosion. And the train stopped in its tracks. The lights went out. The power went out. Everyone dropped to the ground. They were screaming.

BLACK (voice-over): Normally busy, Belgium's streets, surrounded by landmarks of the E.U., transformed into hospitals rather than the home of European politics.

The first victim to be identified, Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz, killed during the attack at the airport. Originally from Peru, Tapia Ruiz had lived in Belgium for six years. She was at the airport with her husband and twin 3-year-old daughters.

As families begin to mourn, hand in hand, the people of Brussels remembered, lighting candles and laying flowers for those who lost their lives -- Phil Black, CNN, Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: A valuable source of information for investigators has been the Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek. A taxi driver led police to the area after recognizing the airport bombing suspects as passengers that he had picked up. Fred Pleitgen reports on what police found there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: According to the authorities, an apartment in this building, in the district of Schaerbeek was used as the main bombmaking factories both for the attacks on the Brussels airport and the one on the metro as well.

The police say that they have recovered some 15 kilograms or almost 40 pounds of the explosive TATP, as well as chemicals, screws, which of course are used to mix into explosive devices to make them even more deadly, and also an ISIS flag inside one of the apartments in that building.

Now we were able to speak to someone who says that he lived on the same floor as the alleged attackers. And he says, he barely saw them around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I've never seen them except one time. I came across one that was skinny. I said hello. And I greeted him, "Bonjour." But he didn't respond. And I never saw them again. And I feel scared.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The raid here in Schaerbeek lasted several hours. It involved a lot of police officers and also police helicopters, with what appeared to be police snipers, glancing through an open door of the helicopter and repeatedly pointing their rifles.

Now afterwards, forensic teams worked pretty much the entire night. They recovered a lot of things from this apartment building. But they also recovered something in the garbage can outside: a laptop that appeared to contain something like the will of one of the attackers, where he was apparently saying that he felt that the police was onto him and that he felt that if they did not come through with this plot quickly, that maybe they would wind up going to jail just like Salah Abdeslam.

[03:05:00]

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Authorities fear that people involved in both the Brussels attack and the Paris attack could still be at large and could still pose a threat to society here in Belgium and possibly in other places in Europe.

But they also hope that at least some of the things that they recovered from this apartment complex here in Schaerbeek could help them track down some of those people and bring them to justice -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Brussels, Belgium.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The attacks here in Brussels truly were international with victims of 40 different nationalities. CNN's senior international correspondent Atika Shubert joins me with more on that.

And, sadly, so many of them are still unidentified and there are families out there, wondering where on Earth they are.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly. Of the 31 people killed, only three have been identified so far. And there are also a number of wounded that have not been identified, at least four, because they are in comas and they have not been to have any ID documents on them.

So it is a struggle for hospitals at this point to try an figure out -- to identify a number of the victims.

And it was a struggle on that day. We actually spoke to a hotel manager who was closest to the metro station. He said they brought out their first aid kits; they had a medic in the hospital to help. But they were quickly overwhelmed. The Red Cross came in and said, listen, can we turn your hotel lobby into a triage center?

And so they took out all the sofas; they brought in hospital beds. And immediately it became an emergency clinic. Extraordinary scenes of people trying to help in whichever way they can. But now in aftermath, the difficulty is identifying the victims -- Max.

FOSTER: And in terms of how the hospitals responded, I gather at least one positive coming out of all of this, was that that emergency response did work pretty well. And the injured did get to hospitals in good time. SHUBERT: Yes, we spoke to a number of doctors and hospital staff, who said fortunately they had actually been preparing for not an event like this but natural disaster, catastrophe.

And so they had actually, in the particular hospital we visited, had plans to convert their reception area into an emergency room and they just had no idea that they would be using it for an attack like this.

SHUBERT (voice-over): The day after twin terror attacks shattered the Belgian city of Brussels, the hospitals are still coping with the influx of victims.

SHUBERT: We're standing outside of the Royal Military Hospital here in Brussels. And this is where at least 80 of the victims from the airport blast were brought to, suffering from multiple burns and shrapnel wounds.

SHUBERT (voice-over): The entrance was transformed into an emergency ward designed to be used in war or natural disaster. Many now have been transferred to the specialized burns unit, though the hospital is also working with investigators to identify the dead.

Jan Vaes was among the first medics at the airport.

SHUBERT: What was the first thing that you saw when you got to the scene?

JAN VAES, BELGIAN DEFENCE MEDIC: Gas. Dust, gas, people shouting, crying. All people crossing, help here, over here. (INAUDIBLE) for me. I've never seen it before. It was a -- this was a war zone.

SHUBERT (voice-over): For 20 years, he has served as a military medic in places like Afghanistan. But he has never seen anything like this, a bomb that investigators believe was packed with nails and bolts.

VAES: I saw a lot of people with holes in their body. And the people were hit by pieces of (INAUDIBLE). I saw children with wounds, that penetrating wounds. So it has to be some explosion device. Things are flying around with a great power.

SHUBERT (voice-over): Outside the hospital, soldiers stand guard. The Belgian flag flies at half-staff.

SHUBERT: Do you also have a picture of your girlfriend?

SHUBERT (voice-over): Twenty-five-year-old Jonathan Selamani (ph) is searching for his girlfriend, 24-year-old Sabrina Esmail Fazal (ph). They have a 1-year-old son.

SHUBERT: What kind of a person is she?

JONATHAN SELAMANI (PH): She's very shy. She's short. And she's forte.

SHUBERT: Strong.

SELAMANI (PH): Strong, yes.

SHUBERT: She's a strong person.

SELAMANI (PH): Yes, she's a strong person. Yes.

SHUBERT (voice-over): Jonathan has set up a Facebook page for information. He says she was studying to be a botanist and on her way to school when the bomb ripped through the train car. Her last iPhone location was near the metro station.

SHUBERT: Are you worried that maybe she's been injured and may be unconscious?

SELAMANI (PH): I don't think. I don't want to think about it.

SHUBERT (voice-over): At hospitals across Brussels, the heartbreaking search for answers continues.

SHUBERT: Now the difficulty of course for those families --

[03:10:00]

SHUBERT: -- is going from hospital-to-hospital looking for information they can get. But it's still likely to be days before they get any information at all -- Max.

FOSTER: And so frustration building up, I gather, Atika, as well amongst families, not just people around Brussels, that perhaps the authorities knew, failed in terms of their security measures. The extent that we knew that there was a red notice, an Interpol red notice out for one of the suicide bombers.

And yet the authorities here say all of the information they have was that he was linked to petty crime or non-terrorism related crime.

What do we know about that?

And was there a failure in your opinion?

SHUBERT: I think it's very clear that there are now a number of red flags that, had they been followed up, may have at least led them to the discovery of this wider terror network. You point out that Khalid El Bakraoui was somebody who had an Interpol red notice. And when you see a petty crime, keep in mind that petty crime was a robbery in which Kalashnikovs or AK-47s were used to shoot at police. So very heavy weaponry we're talking about here. He was wanted by Interpol to serve a criminal sentence.

We also know that his brother, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was caught by Turkey in Gaziantep, which is right on the border with Syria. He was deported to the Netherlands. And Belgian authorities were notified.

But again, the brothers were listed as being involved with criminal activities, not terror activities. So a lot of people asking questions as to whether the Belgian authorities should have been following this up more closely, Having said that, keep in mind that more than hundreds, possibly up to 500 fighters have gone from Belgium to Syria and Iraq to fight with groups like ISIS. Now that is a very large group of people to try and monitor. It requires many agents, a lot of capacity.

And it seems to really have overwhelmed Belgian security forces that they didn't have the resources or the manpower to monitor all of these people.

FOSTER: It's a huge pressure on all the authorities involved. Thank you, Atika.

Next on CNN, though, we're going to have a look at how the Brussels attacks abruptly changed the agenda of the U.S. presidential race. Stay with us for details on that.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS)

[03:15:00]

FOSTER: A moment of silence there and a defiant round of applause, here in Brussels. And a wreath-laying ceremony for the Maelbeek metro station as well, a day after terrorists killed 31 people.

Dignitaries including the prime ministers of Belgium and France paid tribute to the victims there.

I'm Max Foster. And this is CNN's special coverage of the terror attacks here in Brussels.

Belgian authorities are on a massive manhunt still for this suspect in Tuesday's airport bombings. Right now, they don't know how many others may have been involved. So the net is certainly widening.

The attacks here have been a big topic in the race for the White House as well. And we're going to get more on that now from Errol, who's at CNN Center.

Hi, Errol.

ERROL BARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Max. You're right. Republican front-runner Donald Trump and his rival, Ted Cruz, are calling for increased surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods here in the U.S. in the wake of those attacks in Brussels.

Now Trump was asked about his views on Muslims during an interview on British television, really pressed on what he said. Listen here as he says Muslims in both Europe and the U.S. are ignoring potential terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're protecting each other. But they're really doing very bad damage. And they have to open to society. They have to report the bad ones.

When they see trouble, they have to report it. They're not reporting it. They're absolutely not reporting it. And that's a big problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: And Trump didn't stop there. In a second part of the interview which just aired, Trump said he believes the U.K. will leave the European Union over migration issues.

Meantime, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is defending his call for police patrols of Muslim neighborhoods and blasting Democrats for even questioning it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: You know, it has been interesting in the last 24 hours, when I called for proactive policing, directed at radical Islamic terrorism, the reaction from Democrats, Mayor de Blasio here in New York held a press conference blasting me, attacking me.

It's an example where Democrats are more concerned about political correctness than they are about keeping us safe. And that's why people are so fed up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT (voice-over): And what has Democrat Hillary Clinton been saying during all of this?

Well, as expected, she is criticizing her Republican rivals' response to terror by arguing that the world would be more dangerous if they won the White House.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So when Republican candidate like Ted Cruz call for treating American Muslims like criminals and for racially profiling predominantly Muslim neighborhoods, it's wrong, it's counterproductive, it's dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: And there's one voice we haven't heard yet. CNN wanted to hear directly from Muslims in the U.S. and get their reactions to the comments from Senator Ted Cruz. So our Gary Tuchman visited one predominantly Muslim town in Michigan that would presumably be targeted by police patrols under Cruz's plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hamtramck, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, is a unique place because it's the only American city where the majority of residents are Muslim. And a majority of the city council members are, too.

It's a comfortable place to be an American-Muslim. And that's why Ted Cruz's comments about patrolling and securing Muslim neighborhoods captured --

[03:20:00]

TUCHMAN (voice-over): -- so much attention here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's the way he said it. It's a little scary to me.

TUCHMAN: You've all now heard Ted Cruz's comments.

How many of you are angry with his comments?

Raise your hand.

Hands down, please.

Are any of you accepting, OK with it?

Raise your hand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody is.

TUCHMAN: Nobody.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The men in this mosque come from places like Yemen, Bangladesh and Bosnia. But many have been here for decades. And they want people like Ted Cruz to know they consider themselves Americans first.

TUCHMAN: When you heard what Ted Cruz said, what was the first thing that went through your mind?

MOHAMMED AFSAR, HAMTRAMCK, MICHIGAN: Well, I feel very bad.

You know?

It's not right thing to say. This is America's -- everybody has it all right to live in equal opportunity.

MOHAMMED HAQUE, HAMTRAMCK, MICHIGAN: It is a discrimination of a group, a faith and which is -- nobody can support this one.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But many people certainly do, including some non-Muslims who live, work and shop in the city.

TUCHMAN: Do you think Hamtramck is less safe because of all the Muslims who have moved here?

JAN BIELECKI, HAMTRAMCK, MICHIGAN: We don't have a proof to that yet.

But do we have to wait for another Brussels and Paris to prove it?

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The attacks in Brussels and Paris horrified everyone we talked to in Hamtramck, non-Muslim and Muslim.

Hizam Husain (ph), an employee of the store, is from Yemen but has been here in the U.S. for 26 years.

HIZAM HUSAIN (PH), HAMTRAMCK, MICHIGAN: I want America to be safe because I live here, my family, I work. This is my country.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): So if a new president wants police security patrols in Muslim neighborhoods, what would the non-Muslim police chief in Hamtramck do?

CHIEF ANNE MOLSE (PH), HAMTRAMCK, MICHIGAN, POLICE: I think to me is racial profiling. It's ethnic profiling. It's something that our country has been working very hard to get away from, things that, you know, that they're not wanting to do in this country.

And I don't think that that's something that we should support.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): And the chief says she has no intention of abandoning her principles.

MOLSE (PH): And I think we all need to stand together and take a strong stand against terrorism. But ousting a particular group or fighting against a particular group that happened to live in this country of a different faith is not the answer.

TUCHMAN: The Muslims we talked to in this city today do not believe this is political posturing from Ted Cruz. They take him for his word. And they also take Donald Trump for his word. They do believe that if either of those men are elected President of the United States, their lives are likely to change.

But they say they are not going back to Bangladesh. They're not going back to Yemen. This is their home and this is where they will stay. They are just grateful, though, for what their police chief said today. This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Hamtramck, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BARNETT: Now U.S. president Barack Obama is in Argentina where he's pledging to defeat those who threaten the world with terrorism. During a press conference with Argentina's leader, Mr. Obama said the U.S. has its sights specifically focused on ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it is important to recognize that this is my number one priority. I've got a lot of things on my plate. But my top priority is to defeat ISIL and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: Now we also heard what U.S. President Barack Obama had to say about Ted Cruz's call to step up policing of Muslim neighborhoods in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: As far as the notion of having surveillance of neighborhoods where Muslims are present, I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance, which, by the way, the father of Senator Cruz escaped, for America, the land of the free.

The notion that we would start down that slippery slope makes absolutely no sense. It's contrary to who we are. And it's not going to help us defeat ISIL.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNETT: Mr. Obama is in Argentina for the first high-level talks between the two countries in 20 years.

Now to another story developing at this hour: investigators uncover new information linked to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The Australian government says debris recovered from Mozambique earlier this month is, quote, "highly likely" to be wreckage from that plane.

Our Matt Rivers joins us now from Beijing with the latest information on all of this.

Matt, what was found?

And what does it mean?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Errol, it was last month that two pieces of debris were found on the island of Mozambique by two separate people. They alerted the relevant authorities. And that debris was shipped to Australia for further analysis. That investigation was completed quite recently.

And today out of Australia, we did receive a statement saying what --

[03:25:00]

RIVERS: -- you just said, that it was highly likely that these two pieces of debris come from that missing airplane. And it was not long after that that we heard a sound bite from the Malaysian transportation minister. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIOW TIONG LAI, MALAYSIAN TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: The two pieces of debris belong to Boeing 777. Secondly, from the paint and the stencil of these two pieces, it is similar to mass airlines paint. And also, that we concluded this most certain belong to (INAUDIBLE). (END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: So there is distinct progress in this investigation. That, of course, means more reaction from family members of those people who were onboard that plane here in China.

There were many, many families affected by this plane's disappearance. We reached out to several of them by phone. And I want to show you one quote that we got from one family member. His name is Jiang Hui (ph). His mother was onboard that plane.

He told us, "Finding the plane debris does not equal to finding our loved ones. If they can find debris as far away as Africa, the authorities should reassess their searching area and reassess their hypothesis."

So clearly he's not convinced that this debris is from that airplane.

That said, authorities have said that finding debris in a place as far away as Mozambique is perfectly consistent with their models in terms of how far debris could float over the past several years since that plane's disappearance.

So Errol, more heartbreak really for these families here in China as they struggle to grapple with this latest news out of the investigation.

BARNETT: Yes, very well said, Matt Rivers live for us in Beijing, 3:26 in the afternoon there.

We want to get you back to our special coverage in Brussels. It's 8:26 in the morning right now, where we find our Max Foster -- Max.

FOSTER: Errol, we'll return to the airport after this short break, where a first-hand look at the damage underscores really how utterly frightening that scene must have been.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of the terror attacks here in Brussels. I'm Max Foster.

There's an urgent manhunt here for an airport bombing suspect and other terrorists as well. Officials are concerned that Tuesday's attacks are just part of a bigger plot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER (voice-over): A federal prosecutor says the man, on the right here, placed a suitcase bomb at the airport and left before the first explosion. He says it was the heaviest bomb there. Several intelligence officials say the ISIS bombmaker, Najim

Laachraoui, blew himself up at the airport. Authorities previously identified him as a suspect in last year's Paris attacks.

Meanwhile, the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker wants quick approval on an E.U. database of passengers traveling throughout Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: We're getting a firsthand look as well at the horrifying scene inside the Brussels airport just after the bombs exploded. A taxi driver shot the video as he ran through the rubble looking for his son. John Berman has more. But we warn you that these images are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first thing you hear are the screams, presumably the wounded, crying for help. Debris is everywhere, making it hard for rescue workers to get around, fires still burning from the blast, bodies buried under the rubble -- and this, a baby in the middle of the wreckage, on the floor next to his mother, who appeared to be dead. The horror doesn't end here.

Frightened bystanders still trying to make it out of the building.

The taxi driver, who shot this video, reaches the food stand where his son worked, only to find it deserted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

BERMAN (voice-over): Outside the terminal, survivors wait for help. Those who are able lend comfort to the wounded, though many inside did not survive.

Amid the wreckage and debris, a single flower, perhaps a welcome home for an arriving passenger, now buried among the shattered remains of this terror attack.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, so you know, the taxi driver who recorded that video was eventually able to find his son, who was thankfully safe. The attacks exposed a disturbing reality, though. Brussels is now a major hub for jihadists.

As we saw in November in Paris, the threat of ISIS has spread from the Middle East to Paris and beyond.

[03:35:00]

FOSTER: Now it's permeating parts here in Belgium. Deborah Feyerick reports on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Salah Abdeslam, captured in Brussels following extensive raids in homes across Belgium and France, authorities there admitting the scope of the extremist network was bigger and more sophisticated than ever imagined.

With Belgium, a logistic capital and base of operations for some Muslim extremists to launch their attacks.

SAIJAN GOHAL, (PH) ASIA PACIFIC FOUNDATION: It illustrates that Belgium, being a central hub for ISIS, is also the de facto capital of the European Union on the other hand. And it's very worrying and sobering.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Belgium is a small, predominantly Catholic country of 11 million people in the heart of Europe. About 6 percent of the population is Muslim, many originally from Morocco.

More than any other European country per capita, the highest number of fighters to ISIS have come from Belgium. Some 500 men and women believed to have traveled to Syria and Iraq, many were inspired by the once-powerful jihadi group called Sharia for Belgium, which gained prominence in 2010 and was disbanded five years later.

Its leaders targeted a vulnerable and disenfranchised community with rampant crime and unemployment.

TIM LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There were two or three men who were really critical in Sharia for Belgium in the recruitment process, in the fund-raising and in getting the channels organized to send people overseas.

The Belgian authorities did not take Sharia for Belgium seriously until it was too late. The damage had been done.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Prosecutors say hundreds in France and Belgium have been arrested or detained since November's Paris attacks. The most notable Belgium-linked terrorists include the high-speed train gunman, Paris attack ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Paris attack operatives Salah Abdeslam and his brother and all three of the Brussels suicide bombers. Abdeslam was found in Brussels' Molenbeek neighborhood, a hotbed of radicalization and jihadi activity, the scope of which blindsided law enforcement.

WILLIAM BRANIFF (PH), START CONSORTIUM: They don't have enough law enforcement officers. And they haven't been able to ramp up at the same rate as foreign fighter recruitment has ramped up.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Those fighters are well-funded, well-protected and intent on destroying the West.

FEYERICK: Authorities have been investing heavily in counterterrorism and they're taking steps to improve intelligence. Still, the community remains insulated. That means police have a long way to go to fight what is largely an invisible army -- Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We're learning more about the bombs used on Tuesday as well. Up next, why clues point to a deadlier, more portable ISIS explosive.

We're also learning more about the victims of the Brussels terror attacks as well next. Stories of lives forever lost or changed. Plus the search for those who are still missing.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:00]

FOSTER: Welcome back to Brussels. The bombs terrorists used here on Tuesday have the global intelligence community very concerned indeed, with some experts saying they're hybrids of a suicide belt and a car bomb and more portable than ever before. Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This man on the right, a suspect on the run still unidentified, considered one of the most dangerous men in Europe. He's believed to have been a leader of the suicide bombers at the Brussels airport, tasked with making sure the others carried out their attacks.

Belgian investigators say the same terrorist cell masterminded the Paris and Brussels attacks. And now, experts worry that the Brussels bombings have revealed a disturbing hybrid terrorist capability, combining the portability of a suicide vest with a more powerful explosive in a suitcase.

TODD: What kind of flexibility does it give them to be able to pack something, maybe with the explosive power of a car bomb, into this?

RAFI RON, FORMER ISRAELI AIRPORT SECURITY CHIEF: This is -- certainly, it gives them a lot of flexibility.

TODD (voice-over): This photo shows the three men pushing suitcases on carts, believed to be the bombs. Two of the men are wearing only one glove each. Investigators tell CNN they think it's possible that each man's glove hid a detonator.

What kind of explosive do they use?

One possible clue is what police later found in an apartment raid.

FREDERIC VAN LEEUW, BELGIAN FEDERAL PROSECUTOR (through translator): Fifteen kilograms of explosives, TATP, 150 liters of acetone, 30 liters of hydrogen peroxide, detonators.

TODD (voice-over): TATP, a peroxide-based, very unstable explosive that packs a nasty punch. This video shows TATP combusting just from a tiny film canister. BRIAN CASTNER, FORMER AIR FORCE BOMB DISPOSAL TECHNICIAN: TATP is one of the most sensitive explosives known to the bomb tech community. It really takes very little initiation to set it off.

TODD (voice-over): It's so delicate, experts say, that just trying to make a bomb with TATP can be deadly. But if a terrorist is successful in making one, he has another advantage.

CASTNER: It can be more dangerous because it's difficult to detect.

TODD (voice-over): Bombs that are difficult to detect, easy to make, combining massive explosive power with enough maneuverability to navigate through a crowded airport, a tactic so effective, experts worry it will be repeated.

RON: Certainly, something that we would see quite a lot in the future. The number of casualties is usually high and the effect that the terrorists want to achieve as a result is also very high.

TODD: Does this kind of bomb, these kinds of tactics mean that passengers are going to be screened at the entrances to airports?

Rafi Ron says that would create other security risks, like long lines of passengers at the curb. And they might be exposed to bombings or drive-by shootings.

What this is going to require, he says, is more law enforcement officers roving near the entrances and near the ticket counters, using detection dogs, behavioral screening methods and other measures. And even that may not prevent attacks like the ones we saw in Brussels -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Nima Elbagir, our CNN international correspondent, is here.

And we have seen a development, haven't we, based on the assumption that the same network carried out the attacks in Brussels and in Paris, we've seen the development in their skills.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And in essence, in theory, this is the work that much of the Belgian authorities have, the same bombmaker, Najim Laachraoui. His DNA was found in the suicide --

[03:45:00]

ELBAGIR: -- belt in the Stade de France attack. They only killed one person. Obviously, even one life lost is very sad. But they weren't incredibly effective as bombs go.

Now you seem to have had an evolution in the skill set, where these bombs were much more effective. They're still not as stable as you would have seen from a master bombmaker. But there definitely seems to have been an evolution in the skill set, which is incredibly worrying. FOSTER: What about this other very worrying factor that the more we learn about the suicide bombers -- the brothers, at least -- the more the authorities did have information actually that they were a danger, not these petty criminals we're initially told they were.

ELBAGIR: Well, and you're seeing the gaps in the information sharing. So the Belgian authorities have said that Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, that they were only wanted for violent crime nonetheless, but for crime, that they weren't wanted for terrorism (INAUDIBLE).

But then we now see that there was an Interpol red notice out for Khalid El Bakraoui. We don't know when it was dated from. But those Interpol red notices after him related to terrorism offenses. Now in order for an Interpol red notice to be issued, a member state of Interpol has to request it.

So how is it, if it wasn't the Belgians requesting it, how is it that that information wasn't shared with the Belgians?

FOSTER: And the Turkish president saying Turkey warned various European countries that they were sending one of them back.

ELBAGIR: Well, they sent them back to Holland. And this is a vagary of European Union law, where you have a right to be deported to anywhere in the E.U. and Khalid asked -- Ibrahim, sorry, asked to be sent to the Netherlands. So now the Dutch officials are looking into how is it that he didn't ping their radar when he was deported back to the Netherlands and then was able to cross quite safely back under the radar to Belgium.

FOSTER: And in terms of the wider response here in Brussels, one of the sad stories that's coming out of this, is that there are still lots of people unidentified, lots of the dead, obviously, because of the sheer destruction of those bombs but also some of the survivors who are in comas.

It's so sad that so many families still don't know if their loved ones are dead or alive.

ELBAGIR: Absolutely. And that's really what kind of underpins all this. We talk about the details of the investigation. We talk about the ongoing manhunt for the man that was identified in the still images of the surveillance footage but then at its heart it's about -- all of this is about finding and providing solace and respite for the families.

The families in Paris still don't have any respite because they know that that network that carried that out is still out there. And that's what the families are trying to come to terms with.

FOSTER: Nima, thank you very much indeed. And we're going to speak to Atika Shubert after the break. And she's been to a hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER (voice-over): She speaks of the incredible medical work as they try to tackle this horrendous set of attacks, which has resulted in a memorial you see live on the screen now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

[03:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: We've got some news just coming into us here at CNN, word that they're calling to French and Belgian media, there was a second suspect in the attack at the metro station.

Reportedly, there is a second suspect, a man in the metro attacks, and that is according to RTFB, which is the state broadcaster here in Belgium, another line from them. They've learned this morning that there is another suspected of being involved in the massacre.

We're obviously trying to get more information whether or not that person is still on the loose or not. We don't know anything else about it. And these are local media reports. We're chasing it with our teams on the ground, naturally.

It's been an agonizing wait for relatives of people missing since the Brussels attacks. And a family in the U.S. say they have been misinformed, would you believe, about the fate of their loved ones.

Justin Shults and his wife, Stephanie, were at the airport when the blast went off. And Justin's brother says the U.S. State Department contacted them and told them the couple was on the list of injured people.

Later, they received a call from a social worker in Belgium, saying that they had been misinformed. The family still does not know if the couple survived. There's been chaos, of course, with all of the information that's been coming out. At least they got the right information in the end.

But many others are mourning their loved ones they actually lost in this act of terror; 31 people were killed in the attacks, more than 200 injured. Our Zain Asher tells us their stories and how the victims are being remembered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The stories are heartbreaking. This was supposed to be an ordinary Tuesday morning, people traveling, going to work, to school. But it turned out to be far from ordinary.

The first fatality to be identified, Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz: she was a Peruvian who had been living in Brussels for six years. Adelma was 36 years old. She was at the airport with her twin daughters on her way to New York to visit relatives for Easter.

Suddenly, a blast near the check-in counter. Her children and her husband had walked away. They survived. Adelma did not. Another victim was Leopold Hecht, a law student from Belgium. He was

studying at the Universite Saint-Louis and was killed during the metro station attack. Fellow students say his death was unjust. They described Hecht as both brilliant and kind.

A third victim of yesterday's attack, Olivier Delespesse. He died at the metro station in Brussels and worked for government organization. He was on his morning commute through the Maelbeek metro station when that fateful explosion went off.

This is also a story of the missing. Two siblings from New York have not been heard from since the attack. Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were at the Brussels airport getting ready to fly home when the explosions happened.

U.S. State Department officials tell CNN that approximately a dozen Americans were hurt in the Brussels attack and that several U.S. citizens are still unaccounted for.

Twenty-one-year-old Bart Migom was on his way to Brussels airport on Tuesday for a trip to the United States. His girlfriend and his family have not heard from him since. His girlfriend says she calls his cell phone regularly but there's --

[03:55:00]

ASHER (voice-over): -- still no answer.

And in terms of the injured, professional basketball player, Sebastien Bellin, was seriously wounded in the attack. He was in line at the check-in desk during the explosions and is currently in intensive care.

A group of American Mormon missionaries survived the blast at the Brussels airport. One of those missionaries has a particularly gripping story.

Mason Wells is 19 years old. And this was the third terror attack he'd experienced. In 2013, Mason and his father were at the scene of the Boston marathon bombings. And they were in the Paris area during the November terror attacks.

CHAD WELLS, MASON'S DAD: I think two is enough for a lifetime now. I'm just dumbfounded, to be honest.

ASHER (voice-over): A CNN crew was at the Wells home when, finally, after hours of waiting by the phone, hoping to hear their son's voice, the phone rang and Mason was on the other end.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And tell me about your head, honey.

MASON WELLS, BRUSSELS ATTACK SURVIVOR: Oh, it should be fine as well.

CHAD WELLS: Mason, I'm going to catch a flight over to Paris.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What was it like to finally hear his voice?

MASON WELLS: It was amazing relief, pure joy to hear Mason's voice, to know that he's alive, he's OK.

ASHER: If you are concerned about loved ones in Brussels you haven't heard from, go to cnn.com/impact -- Zain Asher, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: I'm Max Foster reporting from Brussels. "EARLY START" is up next for viewers in the United States. For the rest of our viewers around the world, our special coverage of the terror attacks here in Belgium continues after the break.