Belgian prosecutors staged a similar attack in 2018 but at this time Amaq’s websites and accounts were operating again shortly afterwards. Prosecutors’ spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt: “We were surprised by that. That’s why we tried to do a better job this time. It seems to have worked. A lot of accounts and websites have been taken offline. They will undoubtedly try to return to business in coming days, but that will take a lot of time and money.”

Belgium’s attack was launched last week. Federal judicial police in East Flanders are leading the investigation into the IS servers.