ISIS on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the shooting in Brussels that killed two Swedes, saying the attack targeted Sweden for its membership of a global coalition battling Islamists.
"An Islamic State fighter carried out an attack against" Swedish citizens on Monday, ISIS said in a statement issued on the its news arm Amaq.
"The attack comes in the context of operations called for by the Islamic State to target nationals of coalition countries," it added.
The gunman, of Tunisian origin living illegally in Belgium, gunned down two Swedes and injured a third on Monday evening on a street, just before the start of a Belgium-Sweden international football match.
The man, identified in reports as 45-year-old Abdesalem Lassoued, was cornered and fatally wounded early on Tuesday, when Belgian police moved in to detain him in a cafe.
The attacker had served a prison sentence in Sweden from 2012 to 2014, Swedish officials revealed on Tuesday.
In a social media post after the killings, the gunman had boasted of being inspired by ISIS.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Tuesday said he believed Lassoued had targeted Swedes due to recent controversies caused by Quran burnings – some of which have taken place outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm this year – and was also inspired by the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry said the victims were a man in his 70s from the Stockholm region and a man in his 60s who lived abroad. A third man, in his 70s, was injured in the shooting and is in hospital.
Fans of Sweden’s football team will be advised against wearing clothing in national colours when they travel abroad, Martin Fredman, head of security for the Swedish Football Association, said on Tuesday.
“It’s the case that a perpetrator has targeted Swedish citizens so it would be reprehensible not to go with a recommendation that we should avoid [Swedish team clothing] when we are out on trips like this,” he said.
Earlier, European football's governing body Uefa announced a "moment of silence" before all of Tuesday's Euro 2024 qualifiers, in memory of the two victims.
Sweden is among dozens of nations in the Global Coalition against Daesh, formed in 2014 after the extremists seized large parts of Iraq and Syria.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”













