UK goes on top terror alert
MANCHESTER (AFP) — Britain ordered soldiers to key sites yesterday after going on maximum alert for fear of an imminent new terror strike following a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester.
Security services believe the suspected bomber Salman Abedi was likely to have had help from others in staging the massacre that killed 22 people, including one girl aged just eight.
Interior minister Amber Rudd said the 22-year-old had been on the radar of the intelligence community before the attack late Monday at a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande.
Security services were trying to piece together the last movements of Abedi, a Briton of Libyan descent, amid media reports he had traveled recently to Libya and possibly Syria.
Rudd declined to give any further information about Abedi but told BBC radio: “It was a devastating occasion, 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 the attack had been claimed by the Islamic State group, but said there was no information yet to confirm the extremist organization's active direction.
Prime Minister Theresa May placed the country on its highest level of terror alert — “critical” — for the first time since June 2007, following an attack on Glasgow Airport.
The last time troops were deployed on British streets was after an airliner plot in 2007.
Troops will fan 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” but the authorities stressed that the soldiers would remain under police command.
“This is a temporary arrangement in order to respond to an exceptional event,” Rudd said.
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.
British media said Abedi was born in Manchester and that his Libyan parents had fled the regime of dictator Moamar Gadhafi.
Abedi was reported to be a former business student who dropped out of university and turned to radical Islam.
Monday's attack came just over two weeks before Britain votes in a general election and campaigning remained suspended by all the main political parties.
The plan for the troop deployment, which has never before been used and is codenamed Operation Temperer, was first revealed after the November 2015 Paris terror attacks and is believed to allow up to 5,000 troops to be deployed.
The Philippines yesterday condemned the Manchester terror attack and said the country stood side by side with the British people. “The Philippine government and the entire Filipino people stand in solidarity with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in strongly condemning the inexcusable attack,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. – Pia Lee-Brago