Military patrols underline fears another attack is being plotted

ESCALATING the terror threat level to “critical” means MI5 and police Counter Terror commanders believe another attack is imminent.

Unless police stop Manchester bomber Salman Abedi’s network there will be more bloodletting – because there is probably at least one more bomber out there with another deadly device.

MI5 and the government are livid that Abedi’s identity was leaked by America – which possibly forced the raising of the threat level to “critical” because Abedi’s fellow jihadists now know they are being hunted down.

A sophisticated terror cell may have a degree of separation between volunteers who have met Abedi but, prior to the US

leak, did not know he was the bomber. Al-Qaeda and Islamic State want as much bloodshed as possible.

It is likely a bomb-maker is at large, and unlikely that person made just one suicide device. They will not want to waste the opportunity to let off several.

It is very possible another attack was aborted, or planned for a few days’ time, and that means the race is on to find another Abedi who is out there. Meanwhile, Operation Temperer means almost 1,000 troops are guarding key points, freeing armed police to respond to an attack.

However, our troops are more than “backfilling”.

Many served in Afghanistan or Iraq and are superbly qualified to spot a threat, perhaps more so than police officers.

The troops’ senses have been highly honed through patrolling dangerous war zones.

They know bomber body language, the tell-tale signs of a distracted person, about to blow themselves up or shoot, or when a vehicle is overladen, possibly with bombs

And, crucially, they will also know when and how to unleash violence on one or more attackers, with minimum risk to civilians.