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Raids in Britain uncover evidence in bombing
Security is stepped up as authorities push ahead with searches. Meanwhile, a trans-Atlantic rift over leaks is developing.
MANCHESTER, England — Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids they said were uncovering key evidence, and a trans-Atlantic rift opened Thursday in the aftermath of a deadly concert bombing.
The investigation of the Manchester Arena attack that killed 22 people extended across Europe and into Libya, where most of the suspected bomber's family lived. Authorities in multiple countries worked to determine if Salman Abedi, who died in the blast, acted alone or with assistance from a sophisticated cell.
After Abedi’s mother and three of his siblings were brought in for questioning, a Libyan official told of a phone call he placed to his mother and brother just before the attack. On that call, he purportedly told his mother: “Forgive me,” said Ahmed bin Salem, a spokesman for the Special Deterrent Force.
“He was giving farewell,” bin Salem added.
The number of arrests in the U.K. ticked up to eight as British Transport Police said armed officers would begin patrols on some trains because of an increased threat of terrorism.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said that searches of suspects' homes brought “very important” clues in the probe of Monday's bombing at the close of an Ariana Grande show. But leaks from the investigation were creating a diplomatic mess.
Manchester police halted their sharing of investigative information with the U.S. through most of Thursday until received fresh assurance there would be an end to leaks to the media.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, who spoke about the matter with President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels, said the countries’ partnership on defense and security was built on trust. But “part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently,” she said.
Trump pledged to “get to the bottom” of the leaks, calling them “deeply troubling” and asking the Justice Department and other agencies to “launch a complete review of this matter.”
British officials were particularly angry over photos published by The New York Times showing remnants of a blue backpack that may have held the explosive. But it wasn’t clear whether U.S. officials were the source of the images, which the Times defended as “neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims” and consistent with basic reporting “on weapons used in horrific crimes.”
British security services were also upset that 22year-old Abedi’s name was apparently leaked by U.S. officials while police in the U.K. continued withholding it and while raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya. Hopkins said the leaks “caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss.”
Meanwhile, the investigation into the blast widened.
A German security official told The Washington Post that Abedi had been in Duesseldorf just four days before the bombing.
Authorities were investigating whether Abedi had possible contacts with extremists in Germany, including during a 2015 visit to Frankfurt, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Abedi was en route back to Britain from Istanbul when he stopped off in Duesseldorf.
Authorities chased possible links between Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East. They were exploring potential ties to Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan jailed in the U.K. for terror offenses, and to Raphael Hostey, an Islamic State recruiter killed in Syria.
Abedi’s family remained a focus, too, with a brother in the U.K. and his father and another brother in Libya among those detained. Abedi’s father was allegedly a member of the al-Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in the 1990s — a claim he denies.
In Libya, bin Salem said Abedi’s mother told investigators her son had left for the U.K. four days before the attack after spending a month in Libya. Based on the account from a younger brother, investigators think Abedi used the internet to learn how to make a bomb and “seek victory for the Islamic State,” said bin Salem, the Special Deterrent Force spokesman.
Around the U.K., many fell silent Thursday for a late-morning minute in tribute to the victims.
In Manchester’s St. Ann’s Square, where a sea of floral tributes grew by the hour, a crowd sang the hometown band Oasis’ song “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” Queen Elizabeth II visited Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, telling 14-year-old Evie Mills and her parents: “It’s dreadful. Very wicked, to target that sort of thing.”