The suspects came to Belgium at different times under the guise of asylum seekers, La Derniere Heure reported. They are believed to belong to the same terrorist cell, which has links to Daesh, which is outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
A 40-year-old woman of Moroccan descent, who resides in the Belgian city of Charleroi, is suspected of being an accomplice to the group of Iraqi refugees, the daily added. Police confirmed to the media outlet that the woman assisted the Iraqis in receiving accommodation and money and had been constantly in contact with an Islamic center in the city of Verviers. On January 2015, three Islamists, who plotted a terrorist attack on the territory of Belgium, were killed in Verviers during a counter-terrorism operation.
Police searches in Charleroi and in a number of other regions of the country where the Iraqis were believed to have been located yielded no results, the newspaper noted.