The ugly and tragic face of international terrorism was exposed in two brutal attacks in the European capital of Brussels on Tuesday with more than 30 people reportedly dead and many more injured, some unlikely to survive their injuries.
Islamic State claimed responsibility, saying through its affiliated news agency Amaq its fighters carried out a series of bombings at the airport and a railway station, with explosive belts and devices.
The bombings came days after Belgian officials warned of possible attacks following the arrest in a Brussels shootout on Friday of Salah Abdeslam, the only known survivor among 10 Islamist attackers who killed 130 people in a string of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris in November.
Prime Minister John Key has condemned the Brussels attacks, saying no innocent person should have to worry about such violence when going about their daily lives and New Zealand stands with Belgium in the fight against terrorism.
Atrocities like this, and the recent attacks in Turkey, are a stark reminder of why the international community must stand together in the global fight against terrorism.
Attention is now focused on the Brussels attacks with a massive response from both politicians and the media. But Brussels has not been the only capital under attack this month.
On March 13, 37 people were killed and 125 injured when IS targeted buses containing civilians in Ankara, Turkey.
In February, 30 died and 60 were injured in a bomb attack in Ankara and last year, 100 people were killed during a peaceful rally in the Turkish capital.
Turkey sits on the border of Europe and the Middle East and is heavily involved in the war with Syria. Yet, the deaths of its citizens has created far less international attention that the Brussels attack.
The likely reason is the horror being felt by Europeans at the fight started in Africa has moved through Iraq, Iran and Turkey to much closer to home. The dangers of terrorism can no longer be ignored in Europe.
The question being asked now is why did the bombers target Belgium? It seems an unlikely locality for a hub of extremist violence but there are good reasons for the concentration of radical activity in the small state.
Many of the problems leading to militancy are common across the world - developing and developed - and though they may differ in severity, they have the same consequences.
They include a sizeable and poorly integrated Muslim minority, high levels of youth unemployment, the availability of arms, a highly-developed communications and transport network passing through the country, complacent authorities who are always under-resourced and domestic political instability.
The historic roots of the problem are deep. As elsewhere in Europe, Belgium suffered waves of terrorism in the 1980s and 1990s, linked to unrest in the Middle East. There is a long history of connection between Belgium and France in the realm of terrorism.
In the first half of the last decade, as European security services struggled to understand the new threat they faced, and bombs exploded in Madrid and London, Belgium was largely ignored - despite mounting evidence of extremist networks based in the country.
Security staff are reportedly overwhelmed and The Guardian revealed a few hundred agents were supposed to watch over thousands of potential militants.
However, once again it was the one who got away who may have led to many more deaths. Abdeslam, a French national, was finally caught last week. Local officials admitted on Tuesday they were aware of what sympathisers might do in response to his arrest. Now they will have to explain why they failed to stop an attack they knew was coming.
