Two Explosions at the Airport and One at the Subway in Brussels, Belgium Kill at Least 34 and Injure 170; Two Days Prior, Two Bombings in Turkey Killed at Least 41 and Injured More Than 100

GRAPHIC: First photo of devastated #Maalbeek metro station in #Brussels after explosion https://t.co/h4MODFycRU pic.twitter.com/x4Z5IjnhcO

— RT (@RT_com) March 22, 2016

Fatal Explosions Reported at Multiple Locations in Brussels; At Least 34 Dead, 170 Injured

March 22, 2016

Mic.com - Multiple reports confirm that two explosions in the departure hall of Brussels Zaventem airport killed at least 14 people and dozens more injured Tuesday morning.

Another explosion in Brussels less than an hour later at Maalbeek Metro station killed at least 20, and early reports indicated 55 more were injured, officials said Tuesday morning. By 9:30 a.m. Eastern, the death toll from the explosions in the city had risen to at least 34, with 170 total people injured.

According to local broadcasters VTM and RTBF, Belgium's federal prosecutor said the Zaventem airport explosions were carried out by a suicide bomber.

After the deadly explosion at Zaventem, another explosion took place at Maalbeek Metro station during morning rush hour in the heart of Brussels, just steps away from the headquarters of the European Union. 

"There are victims, serious injury, people have died. I have no idea yet on the numbers of injured or dead," Christian De Coninck, a spokesman for the Brussels police, told the Associated Press.

STIB, the train operator, reported early on that at least 15 were killed and 55 more were injured in the Maalbeek blast, according to Bloomberg.

"The metro was leaving Maalbeek subway station when there was a really loud explosion," a witness named Alexandre Brans told the AP while reportedly wiping blood from his face. "It was panic everywhere. There were a lot of people in the metro."

Though no group has yet taken credit for the deadly explosions, the timing of the blasts occurs just four days after Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam was shot and arrested in the Molenbeek district of Brussels.

Hours after the explosion at Maalbeek, a blast at a third location in Brussels from "a controlled explosion of a suspect package" was reported by multiple outlets.



AFP reports that Belgium has raised the terror threat level to its highest.

"What we feared has happened,'' Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said at a press conference Tuesday, adding that authorities are worried there will be more attacks. "There are many dead, many injured. We realize we face a tragic moment. We have to be calm and show solidarity."

Just Days Before Brussels, Here Are the Terrorist Attacks You Didn't Hear About

March 22, 2016

Mic.com - The city of Brussels was rocked by explosions Tuesday morning, leaving at least 34 people dead and 170 others injured. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attacks in the immediate aftermath, but they came just days after Paris massacre suspect Salah Abdeslam was apprehended in the Molenbeek district of Brussels. The most recent spasm of European violence has already sent ripples of grief in media and Facebook feeds around the world.  

Just days before all this, however, there were actually not one, but two bombings you may not have heard about — both in Turkey.  .  

Source:  Getty Images

On March 13, a car bomb in the capital city of Ankara exploded leaving at least 37 people dead and more than 100 injured, according to the Turkish health ministry. On Saturday, an ISIS-connected suicide bomber killed at least four in a busy tourist area in Istanbul.

Source:  STR/AP

But people are asking, where is the show of global solidarity for Ankara that there was for Paris, and there is right now for Brussels?

Or, in the words of Facebook user and Ankara resident James Taylor on the day his city was attacked: "You were Charlie, you were Paris. Will you be Ankara?"

Source:  Getty Images

In fact, the global reaction to Turkey's deadly violence has been so muted that some people online felt compelled to speak out, some last week and some after Tuesday's attacks in Brussels.

"Can you imagine the victims? The teenagers catching the bus to go home, the grandparents walking into town, the people waiting for a taxi after a long day laughing and socializing in the sun," Taylor asked in his March 13 post. "It is very easy to look at terror attacks that happen in London, in New York, in Paris and feel pain and sadness for those victims, so why is it not the same for Ankara?"

Media (and social media) bias has been present in coverage of a number of terrorist attacks in Western countries, leaving in their shadows the stories of similar attacks in Muslim or developing countries. A day before the Paris attacks that left 130 dead, 43 died in a bombing in Beirut that went almost unrecognized. And in January 2015, the 17 left dead after an attack on the Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo obscured the roughly 2,000 killed by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram in the Nigerian town of Baga. 

While coverage imbalances are often corrected after the fact, the latest example from Turkey shows it continues to be a potent issue.