US Official: Belgians 'Know They're Sitting on a Time Bomb'

One day after terrorist bombings in Brussels killed at least 34 people, authorities have now identified two of the suspects and detained a third.

Brussels security is at its highest level, with armed soldiers checking passengers' belongings at the entrances of some of the metro stations in the city center.

"I am absolutely not annoyed by this," one resident said. "If this needs to continue there is no problem because it is for our security."

"It's just so annoying that there are people who are doing this kind of stuff that is really stupid," Rene, a 12-year-old resident, said. 

CBN News Dale Hurd shares his thoughts on the threat facing Brussels from radical Islam and why Tuesday's attacks were foreseeable. Watch below:

Nine Americans were among the hundreds wounded in the attack. American missionary Rockey Gathright told CBN News he had just dropped a friend off at Brussels Airport when the blasts occurred.

"The second explosion, it seemed like it was beside me," he recalled. "All the windows and all the glass just shattered and came exploding out towards the street."

He went into help and minister to victims, even praying with one airline employee.

"People were frightened, people were shaking," he said. "It's almost as if they needed another face, they needed a friendly face, they needed a peaceful person to actually talk with and help settle them down."

Meanwhile, police have identified two of the attackers as brothers Khalid and Brahim Bakraoui. The brothers were known to police for past crimes, but nothing relating to terrorism. Both blew themselves up in the attack. The man in the hat is still at large.

Khalid Bakraoui had rented an apartment raided by police last week in an operation that led authorities to top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam.

Johan Verbeke, the Belgian ambassador to the United States, said that in those raids, police discovered evidence a major attack was being planned.

"In the context of prior house searches that took place in different places in Brussels, there were indications that something was in the offing," Verbeke said.

"A lot of heavy weapons had been found, which is an indication that something was perhaps being planned for the next few days," he added.

Even so, Belgian police were still not able to prevent an attack – and it has cast a spotlight on what some have called a "shocking" level of unpreparedness by Belgian authorities.

"We just don't have the people… we don't have the infrastructure to properly investigate or monitor hundreds of individuals suspected of terror links, as well as pursue the hundreds of open files and investigations we have," an unnamed Belgian official told Buzzfeed News. "It's literally an impossible situation and, honestly, it's very grave."

A senior Justice Department official reportedly said that Belgian authorities "know they're sitting on a time bomb."