--- title: Brussels Attacks: El Bakraouis Join Trend of Sibling Killers description: The Abdeslams. The Kouachis. The Tsarnaevs. And now, the El Bakraouis canonical: https://time.com/4268963/brussels-attackers-bakraoui-belgium-brothers/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-23T17:25:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:13.444Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Can a 'Sibling Effect' Help Draw the Troubled Toward Terror? og:description: The El Bakraouis. The Kouachis. The Tsarnaevs. What is it about brothers and terrorism? og:url: https://time.com/4268963/brussels-attackers-bakraoui-belgium-brothers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can a 'Sibling Effect' Help Draw the Troubled Toward Terror? twitter:description: The El Bakraouis. The Kouachis. The Tsarnaevs. What is it about brothers and terrorism? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Can a 'Sibling Effect' Help Draw the Troubled Toward Terror? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=9935c326-7138-46b7-855f-cb195e0a43e2&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=9935c326-7138-46b7-855f-cb195e0a43e2&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=9935c326-7138-46b7-855f-cb195e0a43e2&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=9935c326-7138-46b7-855f-cb195e0a43e2&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1)  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 23, 2016 5:25 PM UTC  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 23, 2016 5:25 PM UTC  A composite picture made of handout pictures released by Interpol on March 23, 2016, of Brahim El Bakraoui, left, and Khalid El Bakraoui Interpol—Handout/EPA The most dangerous person Khalid El Bakraoui ever met might have been Brahim El Bakraoui — and the same goes the other way around. The El Bakraouis were brothers in life and brothers at the moment of their violent deaths, accused of [setting off suicide bombs](http://time.com/4269102/brussels-attacks-van-leeuw/) at Brussels Airport and the city’s subway station that killed 31 people and wounded hundreds. The recent history of terrorist slaughter has been marked by a series of brothers gone bad. Salah and Brahim Abdeslam are alleged to have worked side by side in the November attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Salah was captured in Brussels on March 18; Brahim died in a suicide blast during the Paris violence. Cherif and Said Kouachi [staged the _Charlie Hebdo_ attacks](http://time.com/3659685/charlie-hebdo-kouachi-brothers/) in January 2015, and the Boston marathon bombing in 2013 was similarly the work of brothers — Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.  Cherif Kouachi, 32, left, and his brother Said Kouachi, 34, suspected in connection with the shooting attack at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris on Jan. 7, 2015 French Police/EPA All that fraternal bloodthirstiness naturally raises the question of whether, for all the good that can come from the sibling bond, there is something pernicious lurking too. Does one sibling — particularly one brother — have a particular power to incite the other to violence? Do criminal siblings somehow potentiate murderous tendencies in each other in ways an unrelated accomplice couldn’t? There are not — thankfully — enough terrorist siblings to permit anything like a reliable sample group that could answer those questions, but existing research does suggest that yes, there is something special about siblings as killers. As [I wrote at the time](http://time.com/3659685/charlie-hebdo-kouachi-brothers/) of the _Charlie Hebdo_ killings: --- > “” --- Smoking and drinking are minor stuff compared to murder — especially murder on so grand and operatic a scale as happened in Brussels this week — but what starts small can get very big, very fast. All manner of criminal behavior can be part of a sibling-to-sibling legacy that psychologists and sociologists call “delinquency training.” When that training leads to homicide, grievance can play a big part too. Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in a tony Los Angeles suburb in 1989 and whose televised trial was a kind of O.J. spectacle before there was O.J., appear to have murdered mostly for their inheritance, but testimony at their trial suggested that they goaded each other on with reminders of ways in which they believed their parents had mistreated them. Ideological grievance — a deep cultural resentment that may run back centuries — can be even more powerful, if only because there is a sprawling network of similarly inclined people who can echo and animate the rage. Still, joining that community is easier for one sibling when another has joined first. Typically, it is pairs of brothers who become radicalized this way, and typically too it is the older one who takes the lead. As I wrote about the Tsarnaevs in 2015: --- > “” --- In the case of the _Charlie Hebdo_ attackers, it was the younger brother who appeared to have taken the radicalization lead, drawing his older brother into jihad. Personality more than age probably made the difference here, with the stronger, more dominant sibling running things. Typically, it is an older brother or sister who exhibits this take-charge quality, but not always. Terrorism, of course, is a crime with many roots, and the sibling bond is a comparatively small one. But it is a root all the same — just one more that has to be pulled out and understood if tragedies like the Brussels killings are going to come to an end. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4268963/brussels-attackers-bakraoui-belgium-brothers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4268963/brussels-attackers-bakraoui-belgium-brothers/"},"headline":"Can a 'Sibling Effect' Help Draw the Troubled Toward Terror?","datePublished":"2016-03-23T17:25:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:13.444Z","description":"The El Bakraouis. The Abdeslams. The Kouachis. The Tsarnaevs. What is it about brothers and terrorism?","url":"https://time.com/4268963/brussels-attackers-bakraoui-belgium-brothers/","keywords":["Terrorism"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/terrorism/","name":"Terrorism"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4268963/brussels-attackers-bakraoui-belgium-brothers/","name":"Can a 'Sibling Effect' Help Draw the Troubled Toward Terror?"}}]}] ```