The surveillance image of three men pushing luggage carts through the Brussels Airport is grainy.
You can’t see their faces clearly. One man hides under a hat.
Still, authorities believe they have identified two of the men, attaching names to faces and helping to start to fill in the picture of who these men were and how they came to be at the airport Tuesday morning.
Thirty-one people were killed and 270 injured when terrorists struck Brussels’ airport and the city’s Maelbeek metro station.
Officials say Ibrahim El Bakraoui was one of two suicide bombers at the Brussels airport and his brother, Khalid El Bakraoui, was the man behind the deadly blast on a train near the metro station. Authorities think it’s likely the second suicide bomber at the airport was alleged ISIS bomb-maker Najim Laachraoui, multiple European officials told CNN.
A fourth suspect, who appears in the surveillance photograph wearing the hat and a light-colored jacket, is thought to have placed a bomb at the airport and left. He has not been identified and remains on the run.
Here’s a closer look at the three suspects authorities believe they know by name:
Ibrahim El Bakraoui
Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, is the man in the middle of the airport photograph.
Police found the alleged bomber’s will on a computer in a trash can in Schaerbeek, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw told reporters Wednesday. The will indicated Ibrahim El Bakraoui “needs to rush” and “no longer feels safe.”
He was deported by Turkey to the Netherlands last year, according to a senior Turkish official. The office of the Turkish President said that authorities captured Ibrahim El Bakraoui in July 2015 and flagged him to Belgian authorities soon after.
“On July 20 the Belgian authorities responded to our note saying this person has a criminal record but we could not determine links to a terrorism,” the senior Turkish official said. “At this point, in the absence of an extradition request or an Interpol notice, an EU citizen has the right to be returned anywhere within the EU. So he was deported to Holland.”
A spokeswoman with the Ministry of Security and Justice in the Netherlands could not confirm El Bakraoui’s extradition but said Dutch officials are investigating the matter.
El Bakraoui was sentenced in October 2010 to nine years behind bars for opening fire on police officers with a Kalashnikov during a robbery, according to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF and CNN affiliate RTL.
Speaking about the brothers, Van Leeuw said, “These two deceased suicide bombers had lengthy criminal records but (were) not linked to terrorism.”
Najim Laachraoui
Appearing alongside Ibrahim El Bakraoui in the surveillance photograph is a man Belgian investigators believe was alleged bomb-maker Najim Laachraoui, multiple European officials told CNN.
The men are dressed similarly, in black.
Authorities have not established the identity conclusively of the second suicide bomber killed in the Brussels airport, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official said, and are checking against DNA and fingerprint records.
Laachraoui, 24, was recently identified as a suspect linked to November’s Paris attacks.
His DNA was found in houses in southern Belgium and Brussels that the terrorists behind the attacks used, according to the Belgian prosecutor’s office. Laachraoui traveled to Syria in February 2013, the office’s statement said.
He allegedly traveled to Budapest, Hungary, in September with Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested in a gunbattle Friday in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek.
Laachraoui was born in Morocco, but brought up in Belgium. According to Belgian media, he studied electromechanical engineering at a college in Brussels.
“The level of skill to make these bombs, it requires many many hours of preparation,” CNN national security analyst Perter Bergen said after reports of Laachraoui’s possible death.
“If you have somebody who’s at the center of the cell who’s building these bombs who’s chosen to die, that would be a big victory for law enforcement.”
Khalid El Bakraoui
Khalid El Bakraoui does not appear in the surveillance photo. He is accused of carrying out the attack at the metro station.
Interpol had a standing “red notice” for Khalid El Bakraoui, saying Belgian authorities wanted him in connection with terrorism. It’s unclear when Interpol issued the notice.
Interpol did not appear to have a red notice for Khalid El Bakraoui’s brother. It did not respond immediately to CNN requests for more information.
Like Laachraoui, Khalid El Bakraoui and his brother have been accused of having clear ties to the Paris attacks.
According to a Belgian security source, Khalid El Bakraoui rented an apartment in the Forest district of Brussels that Abdeslam used as a hideout before his capture.
