Toll of victims from US grows

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Two more Americans have been identified as killed in the attacks on Brussels, a State Department official confirmed Sunday, bringing to four the total number of U.S. citizens confirmed as victims.

Meanwhile Sunday, Belgian riot police clashed with hundreds of right-wing hooligans at a temporary shrine honoring victims of the Brussels suicide bombings, as investigators launched fresh anti-terror raids, taking four more people into custody.

Police used water cannon when scuffles broke out in front of the Bourse, which has become a symbolic rallying point for people to pay their respects to those who died in Tuesday’s attacks.

An official Sunday confirmed the additional American deaths on grounds of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The official said “we express our deepest condolences” to those who lost loved ones in the attack, but declined to identify them publicly.

The official added that the U.S. Embassy in Brussels was “providing consular assistance. We have no more to share out of respect for the families in this difficult time.”

Officials have said previously that at least a dozen Americans were injured in the attack last Tuesday.

Earlier Sunday, the White House said that President Barack Obama telephoned the parents of an American couple identified as among the dead in last week’s attacks.

The White House said Obama offered his condolences and praised Justin and Stephanie Shults as epitomizing all that was good about America.

Justin Shults was originally from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and his wife, Stephanie, was a native of Lexington, Kentucky. They graduated together from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. A family member says they were dropping Stephanie’s mother off at the airport and were watching her walk through security when the bombs went off.