Hundreds of special forces hunt heavily armed Belgian soldier who vowed to fight lockdowns

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Hundreds of special forces soldiers have today joined the hunt for a heavily armed Belgian soldier who is on the run after threatening the country’s top virologist and vowing to fight to the death against lockdown restrictions. 

Trained sniper Corporal Jurgen Conings, 46, disappeared on Monday after threatening Marc Van Ranst, a leading academic who has become a public figure in Belgium during the coronavirus crisis.

The manhunt has dominated newspaper headlines in Beligum, with one tabloid labelling him the ‘Belgian Rambo’ after the 1980s action film staring Sylvester Stallone. 

The soldier is thought to be on the run in the Hoge Kempen forest after stealing four rocket launchers, a machine gun and a pistol from one of the barracks where he worked.

He left several notes, writing in one to his family that he ‘could no longer live in a society where politicians and virologists have taken everything away from us.’

Conings warned that he ‘would join the resistance and would not surrender.’ 

Some 350 police officers and soldiers have been deployed to the Hoge Kempen National Park in the northeast near the Dutch border.

Shots were heard as teams of heavily-armed officers entered the park, with armoured vehicles and helicopters on standby.

This followed the discovery nearby on Tuesday night of Conings’ vehicle. The four missile launchers were inside, along with some munitions and Coning is also armed with an FN P90 machine gun.   

Late on Wednesday, the federal prosecutor’s office said some 250 police officers and soldiers were deployed to the Hoge Kempen National Park in the northeast near the Dutch border.

Shots were heard as teams of heavily-armed officers entered the park, with armoured vehicles and helicopters on standby.

This followed the discovery nearby on Tuesday night of Conings’ vehicle. The four missile launchers were inside, along with some munitions.  

The federal public prosecutor, who has because of the risk of a terror offence being committed, said ‘there are strong indications that [he] might be in that park’.  

The park was locked down on Wednesday and a number of mosques in the Limburg province remained closed on Thursday as a precaution. 

Conings is armed with a handgun and an FN P90 semi-automatic submachine gun, which can pierce bullet proof vests, The Times reported. 

The soldier has combat experience as a sniper and has been described as ‘an acute threat,’ with the public warned not to approach him. He is also known to have led hostile environment training courses.

Conings is reported to have spent much of Tuesday scoping out targets before realising he was being pursued.  

On his Twitter profile he describes himself as a ‘Belgian Air Force soldier who likes fitness, bodybuilding and boxing’, already featured on a list of extremists monitored by Belgium’s anti-terrorist agency.

He was one of around 30 Belgian military personnel with known extremist sympathies, officials said, but he remained on active duty, training Belgian troops ahead of deployment on overseas missions.

Army sources told Dutch-language Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that Conings was ‘an extreme right-wing weapons nut who does not shy away from violence,’ and ‘an antivaxer who hates Van Ranst.’  

Flemish outlet De Morgen said Conings’ Facebook profile mentions the Siegrune, the symbol used by the SS during World War II.  

Prime Minister Alexander de Croo told Flemish broadcaster VTM it was ‘unacceptable’ that the fugitive had been allowed to access the weapons, and Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said an inquiry would be launched.

‘The real question is of course: how is this possible?’ De Croo.

‘Someone who has already made threats in the past – that this man within defence has access to weapons and can even take those weapons with him.

‘It is unacceptable.’ 

Conings joined the army in 1992. His police wanted notice shows a thick set man with a shaved head. In his Twitter profile, he appears shirtless, revealing his muscular, tattooed torso.

He is 6ft 2in, muscular and was said to be a wearing a dark Timberland T-shirt at the time of his disappearance.  

A spokesman for the prosecutors, Eric Van Duyse, told AFP news agency that Conings was ‘well trained but seems to have ideas associated with the extreme right’.

He had disappeared with weapons, he said, and had left behind a letter containing ‘worrying elements’ including threats to the state and public figures. 

Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told VRT television: ‘There are signs that he is violent and, over the course of the past 24 hours, evidence has emerged that shows this man presents an acute threat.’

Dutch police said they were monitoring the situation but had no reason to believe Conings had crossed the border.

Mosques in Dilsen, Bilzen, Lommel and Hulst remained closed on Thursday over fears they could become targets. Local media reported that several had been visited by police and advised of the threat. Some mosques have remained open, albeit with tightened security.

Among the people Conings has threatened is Van Ranst. The leading virologist is an active social media user and his views have made him a target of conspiracy theorists, Covid-sceptics and with the Flemish far-right.

He addresses political and societal issues and faced heavy criticism from the Jewish community in Belgium and elsewhere for accusing Israel of committing a ‘Gazacaust’ during the 2014 Gaza War. 

In 2018, he got into a prolonged Twitter feud with Flemish nationalist MP Theo Francken.

In an interview with AFP in September, Van Ranst said he had fallen foul of the nationalists and received death threats after speaking out against racism and xenophobia.

‘I couldn’t stay silent about that and the right-wing parties hate me,’ he said.

Already living under police protection, he and his family have been moved to a place of safety.

In a Twitter message early on Wednesday, Van Ranst said that ‘being against COVID measures and COVID vaccines all too often coincides with aggression of violence and raw racism. 

‘Let one thing be clear: such threats do not make the slightest impression on me,’ he added.

In its annual report last year, Belgium’s civilian security and intelligence agency expressed concern about a growing right-wing extremist threat.

In particular, it noted that these groups are increasingly seeking weapons in order to prepare for violent action.

But it added: ‘The main threat comes from those individuals known as ‘lone actors’, who become radicalised and plan violent actions on their own.’

Questions are now being raised about how Conings could be allowed to continue serving in the army while being listed as a potentially violent extremist by the military intelligence service.

A potentially violent extremist is categorised as being ‘a person with extremist views who has an intention to use violence, but has not yet taken concrete steps to do so.’ 

Such a categorisation should have prevented Conings from handling weapons, even in the army, according to The Brussels Times.

The outlet reported that authorities will carry out an investigation into how he was able to obtain the heavy weaponry from the barracks. 

VRT reported that Conings was authorised to be in charge of weapons depots as both Leopoldsburg and Peutie barracks, where he worked.

However, the authorisation expired at the beginning of this year and was not renewed.  

A spokesman for ACMP, a military union told De Morgen: ‘Belonging to a certain organisation or having a certain conviction is not punishable a priori.

‘You can adhere to an extreme right-wing ideology, but it is only when you commit criminal offences or compromise the name and reputation of the army by making certain statements that you expose yourself to prosecution under military law or criminal law,’ Yves Huwart told the paper.