Manchester: Britain ordered soldiers to key sites Wednesday and raised the terror alert to its highest level of “critical”, meaning more attacks may be imminent, even as officials identified the suspected bomber as 22-year-old Salman Abedi. Security services believe he did not act alone.
Prime Minister Theresa May placed UK on its highest level of terror alert for the first time since June 2007, when it was sparked by an attack on Glasgow airport.
Ms May said a new attack “may be imminent” and stressed that the soldiers would remain under police command.
Nearly 1,000 soldiers are being deployed on Britain’s streets to support the police. Armed troops are taking on duties for guarding high profile buildings and embassies, freeing up armed police officers to join counter-terrorism duties.
The Palace of Westminster has been closed to the public till further notice and Changing of the Guard, a military ceremony in front of Buckingham Palace popular with tourists, was cancelled on wednesday. The Houses of Parliament also suspended all public events.
Abedi, a Manchester-born man of Libyan origin who may have been radicalised in Syria, recently dropped out of college.
Security services believe that he was likely to have had help from others in staging the Manchester concert suicide bombing that killed 22 people, including one girl aged just eight and a female police officer, and injured 64.
Home secretary Amber Rudd said, “(Monday’s attack) was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we’ve seen before, and it seems likely — possible — Abedi’s father and younger brother were arrested in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Wednesday, on suspicion of links with the Islamic State group which claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday.
Abedi, Ms Rudd said, had been on the radar of the intelligence community before the attack late Monday at the concert by US pop star Ariana Grande.
Investigators are trying to piece together the last movements of Abedi, whose parents had reportedly fled the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
After arresting a 23-year-old man on Tuesday from south Manchester, where Abedi lived, police said they had arrested four more men on Wednesday.
Police on Tuesday staged an armed raid on a Manchester address believed to be where Abedi lived, carrying out a controlled explosion to gain entry.
