Hazel Thompson/eyevine/Zuma
When Belgian police arrested 14 terrorists yesterday as part of an operation to thwart a planned terror attack, an "al-Qaeda living legend" was among them. Malika El-Aroud is a female Al Qaeda recruiter known for her ability to use the internet to draw men and women into jihad. Belgian police said that they aimed to prevent El-Aroud from moving to Afghanistan where she would have played a role fighting coalition forces. Her late husband, Abdessater Dahmane, was one of two men who assassinated Afghanistan's key anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud two days before 9/11. In 2006 El-Aroud professed her love for Osama bin-Laden to CNN: "Most Muslims love Osama. It was he who helped the oppressed. It was he who stood up against the biggest enemy in the world, the United States. We love him for that."