Algerian killed in Brussels raid appears on IS fighter list

Brussels: An Algerian killed during an anti-terror raid in Brussels is on a list of Islamic State fighters leaked last week, Belgian public television VRT reported Friday.

The 35-year-old Algerian identified as Mohamed Belkaid, who was living illegally in Belgium, had volunteered to commit a suicide bomb attack, according to the Dutch speaking TV channel.

Contacted by AFP, Belgium's federal prosecutor declined to comment on the report.

The Sky News channel last week claimed to have gotten hold of documents containing the names of 22,000 members of the IS group.

According to the VRT report, Belkaid fought in Syria from April 19, 2014 alongside the IS jihadists. He went by the nom de guerre Abou Abdel Aziz al-Jazayri (the Algerian).

After his return from Syria, he is believed to have passed through Sweden, the TV channel added.

Belkaid was killed by a police sniper while trying to shoot at police during a chaotic gun battle on Tuesday in the quiet Forest district in southern Brussels.

Next to his body were found an IS flag, a Kalashnikov and a book on Salafism, an extreme form of Islam, investigators said.

Two suspects were still at large after the bloodshed, which erupted as Belgian and French police searched a property in connection with the November 13 Paris attacks, claimed by IS, in which 130 people died.

Belkaid had been unknown to Belgian authorities except for a case of minor theft in 2014, authorities said.