Officials: Manchester Bomber Was Trained Overseas

3 more arrests made
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2017 5:40 AM CDT
Officials: Manchester Bomber Visited Libya, Syria
Police keep guard on a cordoned area in Manchester, England, Wednesday, May 24, 2017.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

As Britain mourns the 22 people killed in Monday night's attack on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, authorities are scouring the record of alleged suicide bomber Salman Abedi. ISIS has claimed credit for the attack, though sources tell NBC that the 22-year-old Manchester resident of Libyan descent also had ties to al-Qaeda and had received terrorist training overseas. Bernard Collomb, France's new interior minister, said Tuesday that Abedi had "proven" ties to ISIS and was apparently radicalized after a trip that included Libya and Syria. In other developments:

  • Police in Manchester made three more arrests in connection with the attack early Wednesday, the Telegraph reports. A 23-year-old man was arrested Tuesday.
  • Amid the UK's highest terror alert level in more than a decade, the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace has been canceled because officers have been deployed elsewhere, authorities say.

  • British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Wednesday that security forces knew Abedi "up to a point," the AP reports. She said the security alert level will remain critical until more is known about potential accomplices and other plots.
  • Health officials say that at least 20 people wounded in the attack are receiving critical care, and some of them suffered "horrific injuries," the Washington Post reports.
  • Surgeon Mounir Hakimi has been treating attack victims and he says the injuries resemble those he saw while volunteering in Syria. "Missiles fired in Syria involve lots of shrapnel in them, nails and debris, but in Syria on a much higher scale," he tells the Guardian. He says his colleagues have treated shrapnel injuries as well as crush wounds that may have been caused in the panic after the explosion.
  • Entertainment companies have been reviewing security procedures since the attack, though the bomber struck in a foyer outside of Manchester Arena instead of inside the venue, where security was tighter, the New York Times reports. Promoters say they believe the extra security measures might drive up ticket costs, but neither price hikes nor fear of further attacks will badly damage the concert business.
  • The Manchester Evening News reports that more victims were identified Wednesday, including two mothers from Oldham who were killed as they waited outside the concert for their 15-year-old daughters.
(More Manchester stories.)

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