2 shot dead in Brussels in possible ISIS retaliation attack for murdered 6-year-old Illinois boy

( NYPost )

Two people were shot dead in Brussels Monday during a possible ISIS terror attack in retaliation for a 6-year-old Muslim boy who was killed in Illinois.

The man claimed in a video on social media that he was the assailant and that he was from the Islamic State.

The attack was allegedly revenge after a Chicago-area landlord allegedly stabbed and killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounded his mother, allegedly because the tenants are Muslim.

“They called it a brutal crime because he was a Muslim,” the man wrote on Facebook, according to a Belgium outlet. “If the murdered were a Christian and the murderer was a Muslim, the subject would have been terrorism.”

The landlord, 71-year-old Joseph M. Czuba, was arrested and charged with murder and hate crimes. He was denied bail at his initial court appearance on Monday.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo confirmed on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the victims were Swedish, but not their number, which the assailant, calling himself Abdesalem Al Guilani and a fighter for Allah, put at three, rather than two.

“I have just offered my sincere condolences to the Swedish PM following tonight’s harrowing attack on Swedish citizens in Brussels,” de Croo said on X.

“Our thoughts are with the families and friends who lost their loved ones. As close partners the fight against terrorism is a joint one,” he said.

A police spokesperson confirmed that two people had been killed in a shooting incident near the center of the Belgian capital but declined to give further details.

One Belgian newspaper said it was likely that the victims were two soccer supporters. According to Sky Sports, both victims were wearing Swedish football shirts.

Belgium was hosting Sweden in a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying match on Monday evening at the time of the shooting, however the match was abandoned at halftime due to the “suspected terrorist attack,” UEFA said in a post on X.

Sweden has been the target of ire among many Muslims in recent months, after several right-wing and anti-Muslim activists have held police-sanctioned public burnings of the Quran, the central religious text of the Islamic faith.

Ahead of one such planned Quran burning in July, which was set to occur outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, setting it ablaze.

Iraq also cut diplomatic ties with the Scandinavian country, expelling the Swedish ambassador, recalling its own charge d’affaires in Sweden and suspending the working permit of Swedish firm Ericsson on Iraqi soil.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has been a vocal critic of the burnings, saying although they are legal, they are inappropriate.