In a statement posted online, the group said “soldiers of the caliphate” had carried out the attack against “the crusader state” of Belgium.
The Brussels attackers, who also wounded more than 200, wore suicide vests and carried explosive devices and machineguns, the statement said, adding that they “detonated their vests” amid their victims at the Brussels airport and on the metro.
The statement vowed “dark days ahead” for states fighting the jihadists.
Martyrdom bomber
“Islamic State fighters carried out a series of bombings with explosive belts and devices on Tuesday, targeting an airport and a central metro station in the centre of the Belgian capital Brussels, a country participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State,” the Aamaq news agency said.
“Islamic State fighters opened fire inside Zaventem Airport, before several of them detonated their explosive belts, as a martyrdom bomber detonated his explosive belt in the Maalbeek metro station,” the agency said in a report published on its English-language site.
The bloodshed came just four days after the dramatic arrest in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam — the prime suspect in the Paris attacks claimed by IS — after four months on the run.
– AFP