CREDIT: REUTERS/YVES HERMAN
In Antwerp, Belgium’s second largest city, soldiers with machine guns are guarding the city’s Jewish community.
Hundreds of troops are being deployed to protect all kinds of potential terror targets — Jewish schools and Jewish museums, diplomatic missions, offices for NATO and the EU.
The move comes after authorities discovered an Islamist cell preparing an attack on police across the country, says Belgium’s Minister of Defense.
BELGIAN MINISTER OF DEFENSE STEVEN VANDEPUT
“It’s very important to say that this wasn’t a simple decision. But it was necessary, at a time when the police are overly engaged, for the army to enter in a supporting role.”
The troops will reinforce police at least until Thursday.
That’s when authorities will review the national threat level.
The foiled murder plot prompted the government to set it at 3 on a scale of 4.
The government raised the threat level after a raid in the east Belgian town of Verviers on Thursday in which police shot dead two gunmen.
Authorities said the Islamist cell had been preparing an attack on police.
The government thinks the largest threat may be against Jewish targets.
An Islamist lone gunman killed four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last May.