Report: Three Attacks Across The World in One Day

By Nawal Sayed

CAIRO, Nov. 20 (SEE) - Three violent attacks took place on Tuesday in different places around the world. Two attacks in Brussels and Melbourne may be categorized as acts of terrorism, while Chicago's attack was already defined as a domestic violence as a gunman killed his ex-fiancé to get his engagement ring back.

Policeman Stabbed in Brussels

Belgian prosecutors are investigating whether a knife attack on a policeman in central Brussels on Tuesday was inspired by Islamist radicalism after witnesses said the assailant shouted "Allahu akbar"(God is greatest), according to Reuters.

"The attacker stabbed the officer outside the city's main police station, a police spokeswoman said. He was then shot and wounded by another officer", she added.

[caption id="attachment_23810" align="aligncenter" width="583"]     Police investigators work outside the police headquarters after a policeman was stabbed in Brussels, Belgium November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman[/caption]

"We have not yet been able to establish the motive," a spokeswoman for Brussels prosecutors was cited by the Belgian public broadcaster RTBF as saying.

Belgium, home to European Union institutions and NATO, has been on alert since 2016 when suicide bombers killed 32 people at Brussels Airport and on the city's metro.

Australian Police Detains 3 Suspects

Police arrested Tuesday three men who were allegedly preparing to attack a "mass gathering" in Melbourne.

Two weeks ago, a man was killed in Australia's second-largest city in what police said was a terrorism act.

In cooperation with Australian federal and state police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization and other agencies that form part of the Joint Counter Terrorism Team carried out the arrests.

[caption id="attachment_23812" align="aligncenter" width="510"]      Police officers that form part of the Australian Joint Counter Terrorism Team stand outside a home they raided as part of an operation in which they arrested three men who were allegedly preparing to attack the public in Melbourne, Australia, November 20, 2018. AAP/David Crosling/via REUTERS[/caption]

All three men were charged with planning a terrorist act, police said. They are all Australian citizens and their passports were cancelled earlier this year.

"We now have sufficient evidence to act in relation to preventing a terrorist attack," Graham Ashton, Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, told Reuters.

Australia, a close ally to the US sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, has been on heightened alert since 2014 for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East or their supporters.

Chicago Hospital Shooting Leaves 4 Dead

"A gunman shot a doctor to death outside a Chicago hospital on Monday before storming the facility and killing a pharmaceutical assistant and a police officer during an exchange of gunfire and dying in the rampage," officials said.

The shooter was the doctor's ex-fiancé, local media reported on Tuesday.

"He shot the doctor outside Mercy Hospital," Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told a news conference, describing the initial killing as an act of domestic violence.

One witness said that the shooter demanded a ring back from the doctor.

"The city of Chicago lost a doctor, a pharmaceutical assistant and a police officer, all going about their day, all doing what they love," Mayor Rahm Emanuel told reporters.