Attack in Belgium; it appears to be jihad

The authorities in Belgium will not identify this as a "terrorist" attack, nor will they give any details on the now dead attacker. So far, the best source of information on this attack comes from a journalist who tweeted the whole incident as it happened. It is an amazing chronicle of the events, and gives a much more complete picture of the action surrounding the attack.

The name of the dead jihadist is Nordine Amrani. Nordine is a derivative of "nur deen" which is Arabic for "light of the religion". Amrani is of the word Imran, meaning "father of Moses" (see sura 3 "the Family of Imran")

The man is a jihadist, but you will not hear the MSM tell you this.

From The Telegraph December 13 by Raf Sanchez and Andy Bloxham

Belgium grenade attack: latest

(the start of the sequence is at the bottom of the page, scroll up to read in chronological order)

Live

21.30 We're going to leave it there for tonight but please have a look at ourfull story on today's attack in Liege.

20.15 Some footage from earlier of the Belgian prime minister Elio di Ruposaying the was attack an isolated incident, not an act of terrorism.

19.34 Belgian television is reporting that 123 people were injured in today's attack, almost double the earlier figure of 75.

19.01 Have a look at our profile of Nordine Amrani, who had a long record of crime but not of violence. We also have a timeline of European shooting incidents in the last decade, there are more than you would think.

18.45 The 18-month-old girl has died in hospital, raising the number of victims to five, according to the BBC's Matthew Price.

18.19 Bruno Waterfield, our man in Liege, reports that the automatic rifle was an FN FAL, a Belgian-made weapon that can fire up to 700 rounds a minute.

18.15 There has been no official word on how the gunman died but a number of witnesses claim that he shot himself in the head with his own revolver.

17.38 Amrani was released early from prison last year because his long criminal record did not include violence. He was a well known gun afficionado and at the time of his arrest had 10 firearms, 9,500 gun parts and 2,800 cannabis plants in his home. In today's attach he used a light automatic rifle and a handgun as well as grenades.

17.17 The Belgian paper Le Soir reported on Amrani's 2008 convictions at the time, writing that he had been sentenced to "29 to 58 months in prison for possession of a dozen weapons and... for the cultivation of cannabis plants. The court has also fined 11,000 euros and gave the forfeitures in the amount of 76,500 euros."

17.03 The attacks are getting remarkably little coverage in the US. The news channels are largely ignoring it in favour of the Penn State hearings, while the New York Times and Washington Post have only very small stories on their web frontpages.

16.55 Our Brussels correspondent, Bruno Waterfield, tweets from the scene:

16.27 Still confusion over whether the Liege gunman committed suicide or died by accident:

#Liege: police still inquiring if the attacker committed suicide. No confirmation still

16.09 Officials now say Amrani was on his way for police questioning when he launched the attack.

Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders said the attack, in which the man lobbed three grenades and opened fire, resulted in the deaths of the gunman and three other people - a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 75-year-old woman. Seventy-five people were wounded. La Libre Belgique newspaper reported that a 2-year-old girl was clinging to life.

Officials say he had more grenades with him.

16.00 Officials say Liege gunman had criminal record involving guns, drugs and sex offenses

15.59 Tributes to the dead in Liege continue to pour in on twitter:

MY thoughts and prayers go out to the people Belgian city of Liege such sad news that people have loss there lives and many injured... RIP

There is more, read it all