Brussels terror attack: ISIS claims responsibility for fatal shooting of Sweden fans

Terrorist group says gun attack part of wider operations against 'coalition countries'

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  Police seal off an area in Schaerbeek near Brussels. A suspected gunman who allegedly shot dead two Swedish football fans in Belgium in what authorities said was a terrorist attack was then shot dead by police. Reuters

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  A woman lays flowers in front of a sign which reads 'courage to the Swedish people' near the scene of the fatal shooting in Brussels. AP

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  A bullet shattered glass on this office building in Brussels. AP

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  Forensics officers search for evidence in the street. AFP

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  Police officers enter a building in Schaerbeek. Reuters

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  Police in the area where the shooting took place in the centre of Brussels. AP

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  A police officer stand guards outside the King Baudouin Stadium, where Belgium v Sweden was abandoned at half-time once news of the fatal shooting had filtered through. AFP

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  A view of the crime scene in the aftermath of the shooting. AFP

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  Police officers stand guard as supporters leave the stadium. AFP

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  Swedish supporters in the stands are distraught when they hear of the shooting. AFP

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  Police forces secure the area. EPA

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  Police and forensics officers work at the scene. EPA

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 teams observe a minute's silence before the football match between England and Italy at Wembley Stadium, London. AP

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.