Daesh adherents on social media were celebrating the deadly attacks that took place in Brussels Tuesday morning, although the group has not officially claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The blasts at the airport and metro station which killed at least 20 people occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in the November Daesh attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Belgian police had been on alert for any reprisal action.
Shortly after the first explosion in Zaventem airport that resulted in the killing of 13 people, Daesh supporters created the Twitter hashtag, "Brussels is on fire," to express their happiness in light of the attack and deliver threatening messages to "Western Crusaders."
The most common remark under the hashtag was "You declared war against us and bombed us, and we attack you inside your homeland." After each additional attack, Daesh supporters celebrated writing "Allahu Akbar."
The popular hashtag is apparently inspired by a similar hashtag created by Daesh supporters after the November 13 Paris attacks, "Paris is on fire."
Both of these attacks seemingly share not only a similar hashtag, but also a similar mode of operation – militants that infiltrate into crowded public places wearing explosive belts and detonate themselves.
In their reactions to the Brussels bombing, many Daesh supporters also claimed that the explosions were aimed at exerting pressure on Belgian security authorities to release Salah Abdelsalam, the Paris attack suspect who was arrested in Belgium on Saturday after a long manhunt by local security forces.
Another popular reaction from Daesh supports on Twitter was that the Brussels attacks were intended to avenge the Muslims' blood that was spilled in Mosul in a series of airstrikes by the Western coalition over the weekend. Dozens of innocent Iraqis were allegedly killed after the US-led coalition bombed the University of Mosul for being an Daesh headquarters.
The "tears of joy" that were shed by Daesh supporters on Twitter are also related to the fact that the terrorists succeeded in paralyzing the activity in the airport attacked. One of Daesh's main declared goals is to devastate the Western economy and replace the dollar with its own coin as the only international legal tender.
By Maayan Groisman
