[2][3][4][failed verification] Other operations were carried out in Brussels and the nearby municipalities of Schaerbeek, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Vilvoorde, and Zaventem.

[11] On 17 January 2015, the Belgian government began a deployment of troops throughout Belgium to defend potential terrorist targets, Operation Vigilant Guardian.

Nine of the defendants were still at large and tried in absentia, including two Belgian, five French, one Moroccan and one Dutch national, who were thought to be fighting for the ISIL in Syria, to be in hiding or to be deceased.

[14][15] The cell was found to have been led by Abdelhamid Abaaoud via telephone from Athens, who evaded capture in the Greek capital.

A member of the Brussels ISIL terror cell, he later had a leading role in the November 2015 Paris attacks.