BRITISH authorities are racing to round up the terror network behind the Manchester concert bombing after Home Secretary Amber Rudd revealed some of those involved could “potentially” still be at large.
Six days after Salman Abedi killed 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, authorities have searched several apartments in an investigation that extends to Libya, where his relatives live.
They also have published CCTV images of Abedi on the night of the attack, which show him wearing a hat, glasses, and a dark top.
The investigation into Abedi, who was known to security agencies and had just returned from Libya before the bombing, has so far led to the detention of 11 people in 17 raids.
In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Rudd acknowledged some members of his network could still be free.
“The intelligence services are still collecting information about (Abedi) and about the people around him,” Rudd said.
“But I would not rush to conclusions … that they have somehow missed something.
“What this reminds us is the scale of the problem that we have, the enemy that we have, Daesh, that is trying to weaponize the young people in our society.”
Daesh is another name for ISIS, the terror group that claimed responsibility for the attack.
Rudd’s statement comes the day after Britain reduced its terror threat to “severe” from “critical” following a meeting between British Prime Minister Theresa May and security chiefs.
The decision to lower the threat rating from its highest level was made by the country’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre in light of the arrests made in the Manchester attack investigation, May said. The level had been raised to “critical” after Monday’s deadly bombing.
It means that soldiers deployed to bolster security will stand down on Monday night as an attack is no longer considered imminent.
At least 17 raids have been carried out across the country since Monday’s attack, according to Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britain’s senior police officer for counterterrorism .
There are also concerns that other British citizens who have returned from fighting for ISIS or other extremist groups in the Middle East could pose a threat — with Rudd unable to provide a figure on how many may have returned to the country, CNN reports.
Manchester-born Abedi likely received some ISIS training in Syria in the months before the attack, according to information gathered in the preliminary investigation, a US official told CNN on Thursday.
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