A police raid, in which anti-terrorist special forces are taking part, took place in central Manchester today. The Manchester Evening News gave the news on Twitter, after yesterday's ones which had already led to four arrests.
The family of the Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi, had warned the British authorities in the past of the danger of the young man: a US intelligence official told NBC News. The bomb used by Abedi, he added, was "large and complex", made from materials difficult to obtain in the UK. And that can only mean one thing: "It's almost impossible that he didn't get help."
Three more arrests have been made in connection with the Manchester bombing. The arrests took place in the south of Manchester. There are therefore four people in total who have ended up in handcuffs at the moment in the investigation into the attack on the arena. The 23-year-old arrested yesterday turns out to be Ismail Abedi, brother of Salman Abedi, the terrorist who carried out the attack. The arrest was made in the Chorlton area, not far from Ismail's home. An online resume defines him as an IT expert who worked for the Manchester Islamic Centre, the Islamic center of the Didsbury mosque frequented by the Abedi family.
"Good progress" has been made in investigating the massacre, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said, while police said all 22 victims have been identified.
Meanwhile, after the massacre, strategic sites in London - including Buckingham Palace, Westminster and Downing Street - will now be under military protection: Scotland Yard announced it, according to the Independent. The news follows Prime Minister Theresa May's announcement that the country's terrorism alert level has been raised from 'serious' to 'critical', which equates to the expectation of a new 'imminent' attack. The usual changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace has been canceled to allow for the deployment of police forces after the Manchester massacre and the maximum counter-terrorism alert, as communicated by the British Ministry of Defence.
For now, just under a thousand, exactly 984, are British soldiers stationed, initially only in London, after the maximum anti-terrorism alert following the Manchester massacre. Interior Minister Amber Rudd said at the end of the Cobra crisis committee meeting. At the moment, according to Sky News, a military deployment has also not been launched in Manchester.
The attack has the specter of suicide terrorism in Europe in a carnage dimension: the toll of at least 22 killed (the two Polish citizens who were among the missing are dead) and 120 injured - unfortunately still provisional; they are not currently Italian – it is the most serious in Great Britain since the 2005 attacks on the London underground and buses. And many of the people hospitalized, a dozen of whom are under the age of 16, are struggling between life and death in these hours. The alleged suicide bomber has a name: Salman Abedi, 22, one of the many 'new British' residing in Manchester as elsewhere, who in the past ended up on the radar of the security forces, only to then disappear. For the local police chief Ian Hopkins he was the author of "the atrocity" committed in the arena. However, every official detail remains covered by secrecy.
