The Islamic State group has taken responsibility for a shooting in Brussel that killed two sweden citizens.
The IS Group claimed on Tuesday that the attack targeted Sweden for its membership in a global coalition battling Jihadists.
The Euro 2024 qualifier match between Belgium and Sweden was suspended at halftime in October 16 at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussel and subsequently abandoned following the fatal shooting.
“Following a suspected terrorist attack in Brussels this evening, it has been decided after consultation with the two teams and the local police authorities, that the UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden is abandoned,” UEFA said in a statement on its website.
Meanwhile, the IS group while claiming the attack, which was carried out by a man of Tunisian origin said it’s a response to Sweden membership of the coalition against Jihadists.
“An Islamic State fighter carried of out an attack against” Swedish nationals on Monday, IS said in a statement issued on the jihadists’ news arm Amaq.
It added that “the attack comes in the context of operations called for by the Islamic State to target nationals of coalition countries”.
The suspect, and who is reportedly illegally living in Belgium, gunned down two Swedes and injured a third on Monday evening on a street, just before the start of a Belgium-Sweden international football match.
He was identified in media as 45-year-old Tunisian migrant Abdesalem Lassoued. He had already been apprehended by Belgian Police on Tuesday has been detained.
Swedish officials also revealed in Tuesday that the attacker had served a prison sentence in Sweden during the period 2012-2014, .
In a social media post after the killings, the gunman had boasted of being inspired by the IS group.
The Swedish foreign ministry identified the victims were a man in his 70s from the Stockholm region and a man in his 60s living abroad. The injured Swede was a man in his 70s currently in hospital.
It also advised Swedes abroad “to observe increased caution and heightened vigilance.”
Sweden, regarded as one of the most peaceful countries in the world is among nations in the Global Coalition against Daesh, formed in 2014 after the militants seized huge swathes of Iraq and Syria