Belgian counter-terror police are reportedly taking lessons from the FBI as they increasingly confront armed terrorists.
“There are not a lot of guns here. But the bad people always get the guns, so we need to teach our people,” a Belgian police chief told The Wall Street Journal. Traditional Belgian tactics call for subdued force that focuses on taking a suspect alive. The rising tide of guns among Islamic terrorists is forcing Belgian police to learn how to take down a shooter quickly.
FBI trainers and tactics are adjusted to respond to criminals with high caliber weapons. Europe’s gun black market is reportedly fed by left over Balkan guns from the conflict in the 1990s. After the conflicts ended, the Western Balkans had nearly three to six million unregistered guns circulating in illegal markets. “There are links between organized crime and terrorists, and a route that goes from the Balkans,” a French police spokesman told Time Magazine in December 2015.
The awash black market is coupled with returning terrorist from Iraq and Syria, who receive extensive training on how to use automatic weapons. Many of the November 2015 Paris attackers received weapons training in Syria, and were provided money to purchase firearms upon their return to Paris.
The attackers also received extensive explosive manufacturing training. “To make an effective TATP bomb requires real training, which suggests a relatively skilled bomb-maker was involved in the Paris plot, since the terrorists detonated several bombs,” New America Foundation expert Peter Bergen told The New York Times.
“Before we had shootouts with someone who had small amounts of ammunition. Now, we are seeing another level in Europe,” a Belgian airport police official summarized the problem to TheWSJ. Islamic terror attacks in Nice, Paris, and Orlando demonstrate the willingness of hardened terrorists to continue shooting until neutralized.
“In Paris, in the Bataclan, they were going to continue killing people until they got stopped. Who is going to stop them? We are,” an FBI trainer told Belgian police at a recent session.
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