Two Americans were confirmed among the 31 dead in Brussels on Friday, the victims of Tuesday’s terror attack.
Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed the American deaths in a news conference with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel: “The United States is praying and grieving with you for the loved ones of those cruelly taken from us, including Americans, and for the many who were injured in these despicable attacks,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. The identities of the American dead are unknown. Several Americans were also wounded.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, President Barack Obama declined to cancel or tone down his schedule in Cuba and Argentina. He joined Cuban dictator Raúl Castro at a baseball game in Havana on Tuesday, where he was seen doing “the wave,” and he and the First Lady danced the tango at a state dinner in Argentina on Wednesday.
Kerry compared the outpouring of support for Belgium around the world to the outpouring of support for the U.S. after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. According to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, Americans may in fact have been the target of the Brussels attacks, since one of the bombs detonated near check-in counters for U.S. airlines, though he said that could not yet be confirmed, the Jounral said.
In expressing condolences, Kerry said the “United States is praying and grieving with you for the loved ones of those cruelly taken from us, including Americans, and for the many who were injured in these despicable attacks … we will not rest until we have eliminated [the terrorists’] nihilistic beliefs and cowardice from the face of the Earth.”
Obama took in the sights in Bariloche and Patagonia on Thursday before returning to Washington early Friday.