Belgian security forces have carried out nationwide operations and arrested more than a dozen people on charges of joining the ISIL Takfiri group and other foreign-sponsored terrorist networks in Syria.

On Monday, police arrested 16 people in twin terrorism-related investigations. Authorities said the 16 were detained in 21 raids conducted in the cities of Antwerp, Bredene, Jabbeke, Louvain, Namur and Oostende.

The police carried out the raids simultaneously because the two "extremist and Salafist Chechen groups... were linked to each other," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

It added that "several people mentioned in the case had probably been active in Syria, especially in the area of Aleppo and probably took part in the fighting."

The statement further noted that the investigation was launched in February after a resident of the port city of Oostende returned home to Belgium for medical care after being wounded while fighting with a militant group in Syria.

On March 6, two men were arrested in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on suspicion of trying to recruit people to fight with ISIL extremists in Syria.

Geert Schoorens, a spokesman with the Belgian federal prosecutors office, said one of the suspects, who is 25, was later granted conditional release, while the other, aged 45, was held in jail.

According to an October 2014 report by the UN Security Council, 15,000 foreigners have flocked to the crisis-hit Middle Eastern countries of Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of the ISIL or other Takfiri groups.

European countries have, on several occasions, expressed distress over the ISIL’s clout across the continent. Authorities fear that the European militants will use their combat skills to carry out acts of terror against their countries upon returning home.

The Western powers and their regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – are arming and funding militants to fight against the Damascus government.

The ISIL militants, who were initially trained by the US in Jordan in 2012 to overthrow the Syrian government, control swathes of land in Iraq and Syria. The terrorists have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against all Iraqi and Syrian communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

MP/NN/HMV