All you need to know about Brussels attackers: el-Bakraoui brothers & Najim Laachraoui

As Belgian authorities continue investigation into the Brussels terror attack, a third name has emerged as a key suspect. Apart from the brothers el-Bakraoui, the second suicide bomber at the Brussels airport is suspected to be Najim Laachraoui.

Najim, 24, is a suspected accomplice of Salah Abdasalem. The latter is the only surviving participant of Paris attacks whom Belgian authorities arrested on March 18. According to AFP, Najim’s DNA was found on explosives used in the Paris attacks. Najim was born in Morocco and raised in Brussels. The New York Times reports, he studied electromechanical engineering at a Catholic high school in Schaerbeek. According to investigation by Belgian and French authorities, Najim travelled to Syria in 2013 and, as recently as September 2015, travelled with Salah Abdeslam, using his false name, Soufiane Kayal, at the border between Hungary and Austria, AFP reports.

Earlier on Wednesday, reports had stated that Laachraoui's was arrested in Brussels. However, the Belgian media later withdrew the report, making it clear that the suspect was still at large. “Arrested man in Anderlecht is not Najim Laachraoui,” the Derniere Heure newspaper tweeted on Wednesday. Meanwhile, this report on Thursday in The Independent states that Paris bomb maker was in fact one of two men killed in the explosion, officials said.

 Belgium-born brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 27 and 29, have already been identified as two of the four attackers operating at the airport and the metro station. While Ibrahim blew himself up at the airport, Khalid carried out the attack at the subway station.

The brothers were wanted after an anti-terror raid on an apartment in the Forest-Vorst section of Brussels last week, media reports suggest. The apartment was being rented by Khalid El Bakraoui, according to media reports in Belgium. The brothers escaped from the raid after a shootout reported that it was during that raid that police found a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam, which led to his subsequent attack.
 

BBC also reported, a note from Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was found in a nearby rubbish bin. In it, he wrote: "I'm in a hurry. I don't know what to do anymore, they're looking for me everywhere. I'm not safe anymore. If I give myself up they'll put me in a cell."

Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw was quoted in BBC saying  the two brothers were known to police and had criminal records.

According to the New York Times, one of the brothers was deported by Turkey back to Europe less than a year ago, Turkey’s President said, suspected of being a terrorist fighter intent on entering Syria, where the Islamic State is based. The Belgian authorities however were alerted only during and after the week.

A fourth accomplice seen in the video footage as wearing a hat, still remains unidentified and on the run.