Police made
arrests in Manchester and Tripoli on Wednesday as the investigation into a
suicide bomber who killed 22 people at a concert venue packed with children
focused
on tracking down a network of accomplices who authorities fear could
strike again.
Manchester
police made four new arrests and searched an address in the city center. A source
said British investigators were hunting for anyone who may have helped build
the suicide bomb and who could be ready to kill again.
"I
think it's very clear that this is a network that we are investigating,"
police chief Ian Hopkins said outside Manchester police headquarters.
"And as
I've said, it continues at a pace. There's extensive investigations going on
and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak."
British-born
Abedi, 22, blew himself up on Monday night at the Manchester Arena indoor venue
at the end of a concert by U.S. pop singer Ariana Grande attended by thousands
of children and teenagers.
Police in
Tripoli arrested a brother of Abedi and his father. A spokesman for the local
counter-terrorism force said younger brother Hashem Abedi was arrested on
suspicion of links with Islamic State and was suspected of planning to carry
out an attack in the Libyan capital.
A man
arrested on Tuesday was reported by British and U.S. media to be Abedi's other
brother.
Earlier,
interior minister Amber Rudd said the bomber had recently returned from Libya.
Her French counterpart Gerard Collomb said he had links with Islamic State and
had probably visited Syria as well.
Rudd also
scolded U.S. officials for leaking details about the investigation into the
Manchester attack before British authorities were ready to go public. The New
York Times later published detailed photographs of the suspected remnants of
the bomb.
The
Manchester bombing has raised concern across Europe.
Cities
including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St Petersburg, Berlin and London have suffered
militant attacks in the last two years.
The 22
victims in Manchester included an eight-year-old girl, several teenage girls, a
28-year-old man and a Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters.
Britain's
official terror threat level was raised to "critical", the highest
level, late on Tuesday, meaning an attack was expected imminently
But with
just over two weeks to go until a national election, Prime Minister Theresa
May's Conservatives and political parties said they would resume campaigning in
the coming days.
SOLDIERS ON
THE STREETS
The
Manchester bombing was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when
four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on
London's transport network.
Rudd said up
to 3,800 soldiers could be deployed on Britain's streets, taking on guard
duties to free up police to focus on patrols and investigation. An initial deployment
of 984 had been ordered, first in London and then elsewhere.
Soldiers
were seen at the Houses of Parliament, May's Downing Street residence and at
the London police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.
A source
close to the investigation into the bombing told Reuters that the focus was on
whether Abedi had received help in putting together the bomb and on where it
had been done.
The bomb
used in the attack appeared to contain carefully packed shrapnel and have a
powerful, high velocity charge, according to leaked photographs from the
investigation published by the New York Times. [L8N1IQ4N0]
The BBC
reported that security services thought the bomb was too sophisticated for
Abedi to have built by himself.
Police
arrested three people in South Manchester and another in Wigan, a town 17 miles
to the west of the city on Wednesday, bringing the total number of arrests
related to the attack to five. Police said they were assessing a package
carried by the man in Wigan.
Police also
said that they had searched an address in central Manchester as part of the
investigation.
In London,
the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a draw for tourists,
was canceled because it requires support from police officers, which
authorities decided was not a good use of resources given the threat level.
Grande was
scheduled to perform two shows at London's O2 arena this week, but the singer's
representative said on Wednesday she was suspending her tour to assess the
situation and to "pay our proper respects to those lost".
Chelsea
soccer club said it had canceled a victory parade that had been scheduled to
take place on Sunday to celebrate its Premier League title.
Several
high-profile sporting events are coming up in Britain, including the soccer FA
Cup final at London's Wembley Stadium and the English rugby club competition
final at Twickenham on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League final at
Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on June 3.
U.S. LEAKS
"IRRITATING"
Britain also
has a national election scheduled for June 8.
All
campaigning was suspended after the attack, although major parties said they
would resume some activities on Thursday and national-level campaigning on
Friday.
The
government said a minute's silence would be held at all official buildings at
1000 GMT (6.00 a.m. ET) on Thursday.
Greater
Manchester Police said they were now confident they knew the identity of all
the people who lost their lives and had made contact with all the families.
They said they would formally name the victims after forensic post-mortems,
which would take four or five days.
The bombing
also left 64 people wounded, of whom 20 were receiving critical care for highly
traumatic injuries to major organs and to limbs, a health official said.
Rudd was
asked by the BBC about the fact that information about Abedi, including his
name, had come out of the United States before it was cleared by British
authorities.
"The
British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of
information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise,
so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources, and I have been
very clear with our friends that should not happen again."
France,
which has repeatedly been hit by devastating militant attacks since 2015,
extended emergency powers.
REUTERS
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