Belgium police arrest 16, Paris fugitive still at large

Brussels, November 23

Belgian police carried out raids throughout the tense capital, detaining 16 people as the city remained locked down under high alert today.

In Paris, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he will ask for parliamentary approval for the UK to join airstrikes against Islamic State extremists in Syria.

Raids across Brussels capped a tense day with hundreds of troops patrolling and authorities hunting for one or more suspected extremists, including Salah Abdeslam, a fugitive since being named a suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks.

The Belgian government chose to keep the capital on the highest state of alert into the start of the workweek after what it described as a "serious and imminent" threat, preventing a return to normal in the city that is also home to the European Union's main institutions.

Federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said 19 raids were carried out yesterday in Molenbeek, home to many of the Paris attackers, and other boroughs of Brussels, and three raids were carried out in Charleroi. Abdeslam was not among those arrested. Van Der Sypt said no firearms or explosives were found.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon told the RTL network that Abdeslam "must have a lot of support on our territory.

That's why all these searches being conducted at the moment are important."

Police fired two shots at a car that approached them as they searched a snack bar in Molenbeek, Van Der Sypt said. The vehicle escaped but was stopped later in Brussels, and a wounded person inside was arrested.

It was not immediately known if the person was linked to the investigation into the Paris attacks.

Several of the Paris attackers had lived in Brussels, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the plot's orchestrator who was killed Wednesday in a standoff with French police.

Police issued a new appeal to identify the third attacker who was killed in the assault at the national stadium. They posted a photo of the man on Twitter, asking the public for information that would help identify him.

France has intensified its aerial bombing in Syria and Le Drian said the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which has been sent to the Mediterranean to help combat IS militants in Syria, will be "operational" from Monday and "ready to act."

France has extended a state of emergency, which allows police raids, searches and house arrest without permission from a judge, for three months. — AP