After Manchester, terrorists will keep trying to attack Britain

The Manchester terrorist attack Monday night was the deadliest since the 7/7 London Underground bombings in 2005 and one of the most shocking ever committed in Britain.

It will cause pain and anguish across the country as families and communities come to terms with the sheer horror of such a senseless act targeted against mostly young teenage girls enjoying a pop concert. If inspired or directed by the Islamic State, it will only serve to strengthen the resolve of the people of Britain who want to see the radical group defeated. Manchester has experienced Irish-related terrorist in the past, and its citizens will demonstrate to the world how resilient it remains.

Now Britain's domestic intelligence agency, MI5, and counterterrorism police units, whose capacity is already severely stretched from dealing with the Westminster terrorist attack just eight weeks ago, are likely to come under pressure as they face questions about why another apparently "known" extremist was not prevented from killing so many.

One explanation is the unprecedented recent surge in threats against Britain from Islamic State-inspired attacks. British authorities have actually been able to stop many such attempts; London's Counter Terrorism Command at Scotland Yard successfully disrupted three separate terrorist plots (mostly involving knives) in the past four weeks, two within a 24-hour period. All of the would-be perpetrators, including four women, were subsequently charged with terrorist offenses. They had all been living in Britain for years; they were not foreign fighters returning from the collapsing "caliphate," but known extremists inspired to act largely through access to radicalizing material on the Internet and social media contact with terrorists overseas. It appears that Salman Abedi, named as the suicide bomber responsible for the Manchester attack, may have had a similar profile, having been born and raised in the city to parents who originated from Libya.