'Large part' of Manchester attack network held in Britain
MANCHESTER, May27 (AFP) - Britain has arrested a “large part” of the network behind Manchester's suicide bomb attack, police said Friday, while the government came under fire for cutting police budgets as election campaigning resumed. Nine suspects are currently in detention on UK soil in connection with the blast, for which the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility. Police in Libya have detained the father and brother of 22-year- old bomber Salman Abedi.
Mark Rowley, head of Britain's counter-terrorism police, said police had got hold of “a large part of the network” linked to the atrocity in which seven children aged under 18 were among the 22 dead. Police said the nine men in British custody ranged in age from 18 to 44.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was the “responsibility” of governments to minimise the risk of terror by giving police the funding they need after cuts made while Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May served as interior minister. Following Monday's attack in which 116 people were also injured, May and Corbyn suspended campaigning for a snap June 8 election.
Monday's bombing at a concert by US pop idol Ariana Grande was the latest in a series of IS- claimed attacks in Europe that have coincided with an offensive on the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq by US, British and other Western forces. Dozens of IS fighters were killed in US strikes on Syria Friday.
Britain's terror threat assessment has been hiked to “critical”, the highest level, meaning an attack is considered imminent. The issue of security, which was not widely discussed in the general election campaign before the attack, is now expected to feature highly.
May was at the G7 summit in Sicily on Friday where she got the group to demand action from internet providers and social media firms against extremist content online. She faced questions from British journalists over police funding cuts during her six years as the interior minister. The number of police officers fell by 14 percent, or almost 20,000, between 2009-16.
Manchester-born Abedi, a university dropout, grew up in a Libyan family in the northwestern English city. Libyan officials said he and his brother Hashem belonged to IS, while their father Ramadan once belonged to a now- disbanded militant group with alleged ties to Al- Qaeda.