British
police said they had arrested two men on Saturday as they stepped up their
efforts to capture a suspected network behind the suicide bomber who killed 22
people
in Manchester earlier this week.
Officers
used a controlled explosion to gain entry to the address in the north of the
city where the latest arrests were made. Detectives are now questioning 11 men
over the attack by Salman Abedi at a pop concert in Manchester on Monday.
While
Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer said police were confident that
they had made "immense" progress and had apprehended a "large
part of the network", extra armed officers will be on duty across the
country with security stepped up at some 1,300 events over the long holiday
weekend.
Britain
remains on its highest threat level of critical, meaning an attack is expected
imminently, with the army backing up police and hospitals across the country
have told staff to be ready for another incident.
The Times
newspaper reported on Saturday that intelligence officers had identified 23,000
jihahist extremists living in Britain.
Earlier this
week a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters the security services
were managing 500 active operations involving some 3,000 people who were
thought to pose a threat.
However,
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the UK police chief for counter-terrorism,
advised people to be vigilant but to "go out as you planned and enjoy
yourselves".
There are a
number of high-profile events over the weekend including soccer cup finals in
London and Glasgow, and the Great Manchester Run.
While police
and politicians have praised communities in Manchester for their reaction to
the bombing, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable said there had been a
rise in reported hate crimes, from an average of 28 to 56 incidents on
Wednesday.
"We
can't directly link these to the events of Monday night and are continuing to
monitor the situation," he said.
Political
campaigning for the June 8 national election which was suspended after the
Manchester attack resumed on Friday with the bombing becoming a central
feature.
The
opposition Labour Party, emboldened by a rise in opinion polls, argued that
Britain's foreign policy had increased the risk of attacks and criticized
Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May for cutting spending on policing.
May said
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was saying Britain was to blame for the bombing.
"I want
to make one thing very clear to Jeremy Corbyn and to you, and it is that there
can never, ever be an excuse for terrorism," she said at a summit of Group
of Seven leaders in Sicily.
A poll on
Thursday put May's Conservatives five points ahead of Labour suggesting a far
tighter race than previously anticipated.
Reuters
Reuters
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