UK on highest terror alert, deploys army
manchester — British security forces arrested three more suspects on Wednesday in connection with the Manchester concert bombing and sent hundreds of soldiers to secure key sites across the country, including Buckingham Palace and the British Parliament at Westminster.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the bomber, identified as British-born Libyan Salman Abedi, “likely” did not act alone when he killed 22 people and wounded dozens at an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night in Manchester. She said he had been known to security forces “up to a point”.
“I think it’s very clear that this is a network that we are investigating,” police chief Ian Hopkins told reporters outside Manchester police headquarters.
Officials are examining Abedi’s trips to Libya and possibly Syria as they piece together his allegiances and try to foil any new potential threats. The government said nearly 1,000 soldiers were deployed on Wednesday instead of police in high-profile sites in London and other locations.
Police said three men were arrested on Wednesday in south Manchester, where a day earlier a 23-year-old man was also arrested and a number of homes were searched. Britain raised its threat level from terrorism to “critical” after an emergency government meeting late on Tuesday amid concerns that the 22-year-old Abedi may have accomplices who are planning another attack.
The changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace was cancelled on Wednesday so police officers can be re-deployed, Britain’s defense ministry said.
The Palace of Westminster, which houses the British Parliament, was also closed Wednesday to all those without passes, and tours and events there were cancelled until further notice. — AP
manchester — Britain deployed soldiers to key sites on Wednesday and raised its terror alert to the maximum after the Manchester suicide bombing by a local man of Libyan origin who may have been radicalised in Syria.
Security services believe the suspected bomber, Salman Abedi, was likely to have had help from others in staging the attack that killed 22 people including a girl aged just eight.
Interior minister Amber Rudd said the 22-year-old had been on the radar of the intelligence community before the massacre late Monday at a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande.
Investigators were trying to piece together the last movements of Abedi, a Manchester-born man of Libyan descent whose parents had reportedly fled the now fallen regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
After arresting a 23-year-old man on Tuesday, police said they had taken three more men into custody on Wednesday in south Manchester, where Abedi lived.
Abedi was reported to be a former business student who dropped out of university and turned to radicalism.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the bomber had “likely” been to Syria, citing information provided by British intelligence services to their counterparts in Paris. Collomb told French television the suspect “grew up in Britain and then suddenly, after a trip to Libya and then likely to Syria, became radicalised and decided to carry out this attack”.
“In any case, the links with Daesh are proven,” he said, which claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday.
In light of the Manchester attack, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance had to “step up and agree to do more in the fight against terrorism” at summit talks set for Thursday.
The summit is to be joined by US President Donald Trump, who has lambasted Nato for not doing more against extremism and who called those responsible for the Manchester bombing “evil losers”.
Rudd declined to give any further information about Abedi but told BBC radio: “It was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we’ve seen before, and it seems likely — possible — that he wasn’t doing this on his own.”
The minister said she was “not surprised at all” that Daesh terrorists had claimed the attack but said there was no information yet to confirm the extremist organisation’s active direction. It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents across Europe claimed by Daesh militants that have coincided with an offensive on the group’s redoubts in Syria and Iraq carried out by US, British and other Western forces.
British Prime Minister Theresa May placed the country on its highest level of terror alert — “critical” — for the first time since June 2007, when it was sparked by an attack on Glasgow airport.
Around 1,000 troops were fanning out at sites such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster and foreign embassies in London to free up armed police for anti-terror duties.
May said a new attack “may be imminent” and stressed that the soldiers would remain under police command.
The Changing of the Guard, a military ceremony in front of Buckingham Palace popular with tourists, was cancelled on Wednesday and the Houses of Parliament suspended all public events.
The attack was the deadliest in Britain since July 7, 2005 when four suicide bombers inspired by Al Qaeda attacked London’s transport system during rush hour, killing 52 people.
A Polish couple living in Britain were confirmed among the Manchester victims, along with 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, whose mother had issued heartrending appeals for help when her daughter was still missing. —