Belgian Police recently thwarted a suspected terror cell preparing to launch attacks on a grand scale. Two men were killed in this operation which is one of about a dozen counter terrorism raids being carried out by the police.

"Two suspects were killed Thursday in the anti-terrorism operation at a building in the eastern city of Verviers", prosecutor's spokesman Eric van der Sypt said. A third man was arrested during the investigation and no connection has yet been established with the recent attacks in Paris, he added.

Quoting police sources, The Standard news site, reported, "The three men had been under long-term surveillance. They had come back from conflict zones, undoubtedly Syria, and they had planned an attack against a police station. They had Kalashnikovs."

A senior Belgian counter terrorism official stated that the alleged terror cell received instructions from ISIS. Reportedly, some of the members of the cell were a part of the planning of the attacks as retaliation for U.S. led air strikes in Syria and Iraq. For this purpose they often travelled to Syria and met with ISIS who masterminded the activities of the cell.

"This was in the framework of an operation looking into an operational cell made up of people, some of whom coming back from Syria," van der Sypt said, "The investigation made it possible to determine that the group was about to carry out major terrorist attacks in Belgium imminently."

This raid comes at a time when Belgium witnesses high radical Islamist activity. Studies conducted by Brian's International Centre for Study of Radicalisation reveal a contradictory scenario with around 300 Belgians traveling to Syria as compared to the 600 foreign fighters that left the U.K. for the war torn country.

According to European officials, the recent events add up to an unprecedented threat in Europe. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls agrees with the view and adds that France had never faced a greater terrorist threat.

European officials say all this adds up to an unprecedented terrorist threat in Europe. Late last year, just weeks before the attacks on a satirical magazine, Jewish grocery and police officers in Paris, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France had never faced a greater terrorist threat.

ISIS runs large training facilities in Europe and Syria, has deep financial pockets, and access to thousands of potential European recruits.