The following lists events that happened in 2015 in the Kingdom of Belgium.
On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Armed with rifles and other weapons, they killed 12 people and injured 11 others. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which took responsibility for the attack. Several related attacks followed in the Île-de-France region on 7–9 January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege, where a terrorist killed four Jewish people.
From 7 to 9 January 2015, terrorist attacks occurred across the Île-de-France region, particularly in Paris. Three attackers killed a total of 17 in four shooting attacks, and police then killed the three assailants. The attacks also wounded 22 other people. A fifth shooting attack did not result in any fatalities. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility and said that the coordinated attacks had been planned for years. The claim of responsibility for the deadly attack on the magazine came in a video showing AQAP commander Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi, with gunmen in the background that were later identified as the Kouachi brothers. However, while authorities say the video is authentic, there is no proof that AQAP helped to carry out the attacks. Amedy Coulibaly, who committed another leg of the attacks claimed that he belonged to ISIS before he died.
On 21 August 2015, a man opened fire on a Thalys train on its way from Amsterdam to Paris. Four people were injured, including the assailant. French, American and British passengers confronted the attacker and subdued him when his rifle jammed. For their heroism, they received France's highest decoration, the Legion of Honour. The assailant, later identified as Ayoub El Khazzani, initially claimed to be only a robber, but later confessed that he had wanted to "kill Americans" as revenge for bombings in Syria.
The November 2015 Paris attacks were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15 p.m., three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, during an international football match, after failing to gain entry to the stadium. Another group of attackers then fired on crowded cafés and restaurants in Paris, with one of them also detonating an explosive, killing himself in the process. A third group carried out another mass shooting and took hostages at an Eagles Of Death Metal concert attended by 1,500 people in the Bataclan theatre, leading to a stand-off with police. The attackers were either shot or blew themselves up when police raided the theatre.
Salah Abdeslam is a French Islamic terrorist and the only surviving member of the 10-man unit that carried out the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015 in which 130 people were killed and more than 490 injured.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud was a Belgian-Moroccan Islamic militant who had spent time in Syria. He was suspected of having organized multiple terror attacks in Belgium and France, and is known to have masterminded the November 2015 Paris attacks. Prior to the Paris attacks, there was an international arrest warrant issued for Abaaoud for his activities in recruiting individuals to Islamic terrorism in Syria.
The 2015 Saint-Denis raid was a police raid which became a shootout between at least one hundred French police and soldiers and suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
From 21 to 25 November 2015, the government of Belgium imposed a security lockdown on Brussels, including the closure of shops, schools, public transportation, due to information about potential terrorist attacks in the wake of the series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on 13 November. One of the perpetrators of the attack, Belgian-born French national Salah Abdeslam, was thought to be hiding in the city. As a result of warnings of a serious and imminent threat, the terror alert level was raised to the highest level (four) across the Brussels metropolitan area, and people were advised not to congregate publicly, effectively putting the city under lockdown.
Mohamed Abrini is a Belgian Islamic terrorist. On 29 June 2022 he was convicted of involvement in the November 2015 Paris attacks and received a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years. He is due to go on trial for his role in the 2016 Brussels bombings in October 2022.
On 7 January 2016 in Paris, a man wearing a fake explosive belt attacked police officers with a meat cleaver while shouting "Allahu Akbar!" He was shot and killed by officers when he failed to obey an order to stop.
On 15 and 18 March 2016, Belgian police carried out raids on houses in Brussels. The raids were conducted in connection to the attacks in Paris four months earlier. In the raids, one suspect was killed and five others were arrested, including Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of direct involvement in the Paris attacks.
The 2016 Brussels bombings was a coordinated terrorist attack in Brussels, Belgium, carried out by the Islamic State, on 22 March 2016. Three coordinated suicide bombings occurred: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station on the Brussels metro. 32 civilians and three perpetrators were killed, and more than 300 people were injured. Another bomb was found during a search of the airport. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Najm al-'Ashrāwī, also known as Abū Idrīs al-Baljīkī or Soufiane Kayal, was a Belgian-Moroccan Islamic militant loyal to the Islamic State and was one of two suicide bombers at the Brussels Airport in the 2016 Brussels bombings. The Islamic State confirmed that he was responsible for making all the explosives used in the November 2015 Paris attacks.
The Brussels ISIL terror cell were a group accused of involvement in large-scale terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels in early 2016, as well as other attacks against European targets. The terror cell is connected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a jihadist terrorist organisation primarily based in Syria and Iraq.
Khālid El Bakraoui, also known as Abū Walīd al-Baljīkī, was a Belgian national of Moroccan descent, confirmed to be the suicide bomber at the metro station in the 2016 Brussels bombings.
Islamic terrorism in Europe has been carried out by the Islamic State (ISIL) or Al-Qaeda as well as Islamist lone wolves since the late 20th century. Europol, which releases the annual EU Terrorism Situation and Trend report (TE-SAT), used the term "Islamist terrorism" in the years 2006–2010, "religiously inspired terrorism" 2011–2014, and has used "jihadist terrorism" since 2015. Europol defines jihadism as "a violent ideology exploiting traditional Islamic concepts".
Farid Melouk is a French-Algerian former member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and convicted terrorist, known for his central role in jihadist networks.
The Anti-Terror Units are the special forces of the Syrian Democratic Forces, consisting of the best trained and equipped members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Women's Protection Units (YPJ). They were led by the Syrian Kurdish commander Ali Boutan until his death. YAT is trained by United States special operations forces and the CIA.
This article covers attacks and activity of terrorism in Belgium.
