‘Key players’ arrested in Manchester bomb probe
A“LARGE part” of the Manchester suicide bomber’s suspected network have been detained since the atrocity, according to Britain’s leading counter-terrorism officer.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said police had made made “significant” arrests, with “key players” suspected of being connected to Salman Abedi held. His remarks came ahead of a weekend of events including the FA Cup Final and Great Manchester Run, with 1,100 armed officers on patrol. Security has been reviewed at more than 1,300 events, including next Saturday’s Champions League final in Cardiff, in the aftermath of 22-year-old Abedi’s attack as Britain remains at the highest threat level.
The breadth of the task facing the security services emerged yesterday as figures indicated as many as 23,000 people have appeared on the radar of counter-terror agencies.
But Prime Minister Theresa May denied that it was her government’s 20,000 reduction in police numbers that had made it necessary to put troops on to the streets. She said: “The plan to ensure that there was military support available to the police is a well-prepared plan, it’s one that was developed a while ago.”
Authorities in Manchester have revealed a spike in reported hate crimes since Monday’s explosion, which killed 22 people at a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.
DETECTIVES have made “immense” progress in the investigation into the Manchester bombing and are confident they have arrested some “key players”, Britain’s top counter-terror officer has said.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said police have made “significant” arrests and “finds” and have got hold of a “large part” of the suspected network being sought over the atrocity.
He said: “We are very happy we’ve got our hands around some of the key players that we are concerned about but there’s still a little bit more to do.”
The senior officer also issued a defiant message as he urged people to go about their business as normal over the bank holiday weekend.
“Enjoy yourselves and be reassured by the greater policing presence you will see,” he said. “We can’t let the terrorists win by dissuading us from going about our normal business.”
A huge security operation is planned with 1,100 armed officers on hand to protect major spectacles around the country, including the FA Cup final at Wembley and the Great Manchester Run.
It was revealed that specialist teams have carried out a review of security for more than 1,300 events with Britain remaining at the highest threat level of critical while the investigation into the bombing continues.
Twenty-two victims including children were killed when Salman Abedi, 22, launched a suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday night.
It was the worst terrorist atrocity to hit Britain since the July 7 attacks in London in 2005 and sparked a huge counter-terror probe.
Since Tuesday a total of 11 people have been arrested, with nine men aged between 18 and 44 remaining in custody. Two of those held, a 16-year-old boy and a woman aged 34, have been released without charge.
On last night officers were still carrying out searches at 12 locations, with activity expected to continue throughout the weekend.
Providing an update on the probe, Mr Rowley said it was likely further arrests would follow.
“Having made enormous progress and made some significant arrests and had some significant finds, there still remain important lines of inquiry for us to pursue.
“We’ve got to try to understand everything we can about the dead terrorist, his associates. We need to understand the whole network and how they acquired and built the bomb that exploded on Monday night.
“It’s going to take a little more time to close down those gaps in our understanding. We are working as fast as we can do because everyone wants answers to this.”
He said police now have a “much better understanding” with a “lot of the risk contained”. However, some uncertainty remains.
Mr Rowley said: “We need to grow our confidence that we have got every component of the network and we have got as full an understanding as possible about how the device was constructed and whether there’s any remaining risk.
“Clearly we haven’t covered all the territory we want to but we have covered a large part of it.
“Our confidence has been increasing over recent days but there’s still more to do to get to the degree of confidence we want.”
Mr Rowley outlined a number of strands of the investigation into the attack:
Finances – Officers are mounting a large-scale financial investigation, with Mr Rowley saying: “We are interested in equipment people have bought bearing in mind a bomb was constructed.”
Communications – Police are looking back at communications and working closely with technology firms.
Exhibits – Investigators have seized large volumes of material during searches of a number of properties and expect to amass hundreds of electronic devices.
CCTV – Police are trawling through footage on local cameras to establish movements and patterns of activity in the lead-up to the attack.
Witnesses – Officers are working to “triage” hundreds of statements from those caught up in the bombing.
International inquiries –
Detectives are probing links to Libya as well as liaising with counterparts across Europe.
Meanwhile, further details about the scale of a wider terror threat emerged as figures indicated as many as 23,000 people have appeared on the radar of counter-terror agencies.
Authorities are handling 500 investigations into 3,000 individuals currently, while it was disclosed yesterday that around 20,000 people are considered former “subjects of interest”.
Prime Minister Theresa May denied that it was her government’s 20,000 reduction in police numbers that had made it necessary to put troops on to the streets in the wake of the Manchester bombing.
Asked at a press conference at the G7 summit in Sicily whether she bore responsibility for denying police the resources they needed to do their jobs, Mrs May said: “No. The plan to ensure that there was military support available to the police is one that was developed a while ago.
“It was done so that at a time when we got to ‘critical’ in our threat level – which of course is determined independently – extra support could be made available. And that is exactly what has happened.”
THERESA May has warned that the threat from the Islamic State terror group is moving “from the battlefield to the internet”, as leaders of the world’s leading industrial states issued a joint demand for tech giants to take down terrorist content.
In the wake of the suicide bomb in Manchester, leaders of the G7 states - the US, UK, Canada, Japan , France, Germany and Italy – agreed a package of measures to step up the fight against terror.
And they backed Mrs May’s call for more pressure to be put on internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to target extremist messages online, including by developing technology which automatically identifies and removes messages that incite violence.
In a press conference at the end of the first day of the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy, Mrs May said: “We agreed that the threat from Daesh is evolving rather than disappearing. As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning and the group’s hateful ideology is spreading online.
“Make no mistake, the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet.
“In the UK, we are already working with social media companies to halt the spread of extremist material and hateful propaganda that is warping young minds.
“I am clear that corporations can do more. Indeed they have a social responsibility to now step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks.
“Today, I called on leaders to do more. We agreed a range of steps the G7 could take to strengthen its work with tech companies on this vital agenda.
“We want companies to develop tools to identify and remove harmful materials automatically and, in particular, I want to see them report this vile content to the authorities and block the users who spread it.”
The G7 will support the creation of an international industry-led forum to develop and share tools of this type, she said. The G7 agreed a range of measures to tackle terrorism, including action to return and prosecute foreign fighters and to cut off sources of terrorist finance.
In their joint statement, the leaders said they were “united in expressing our deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims of the brutal terrorist act in Manchester”, adding: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
Mrs May said the investigation into the Manchester attack was ongoing, but that bomber Salman Abedi’s links with Libya “undoubtedly shine a spotlight on this largely ungoverned space on the edge of Europe”.
She said: “We must redouble our support for a UN-led effort that brings all parties to the negotiating table and reduces the threat of terror from that region.”
Mrs May was cutting short her attendance at the two-day G7 gathering and flew back to the UK last night.
Mrs May described the G7 joint statement as “a significant step forward”, and said she wanted to see terrorist material taken down “more urgently and more rapidly than it is at the moment”.
She added: “It is also the case that I think it’s important that companies recognise their social responsibility and do report matters that they become aware of to the authorities.
“We need to work together to fight against the evil of terrorism.
“And nobody can be in any doubt, after what we saw in Manchester, of just how evil those terrorists are.”
Asked whether she would demand that tech companies break their own encryption in order to hand over material to the authorities, Mrs May said: “In overall terms, it’s important that people feel they are able to be safe and secure on the internet.
“What we do want to do is to work with the companies to ensure they can take down material that is of extremist terrorist content, that is promoting this hateful ideology and promoting terrorism.”