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May 30, 2017

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Probe launched to see if MI5 missed clues in UK attack

THE United Kingdom’s MI5 intelligence service has launched an internal probe into whether vital clues were missed ahead of the Manchester attack, as the city yesterday marked a week since the carnage that claimed 22 lives.

Manchester City Council called a vigil in the center of the northwest English city at 2131 GMT — the exact moment that 22-year-old Salman Abedi detonated his bomb outside a pop concert by teen idol Ariana Grande in one of Europe’s biggest indoor arenas.

The names of the victims, including six children, were read out in front of the city’s town hall earlier yesterday in front of hundreds of people.

A nearby square that has been the focus of remembrance was packed with floral tributes and heart-shaped balloons, as well as runners’ bibs left by participants in a half-marathon yesterday.

“You tried to destroy us but you’ve brought us closer together,” read one message of defiance.

Investigators meanwhile pushed ahead with their probe of the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Authorities arrested a 23-year-old man in the southern coastal town of Shoreham-by-Sea, more than 400 kilometers from Manchester.

That brings the total number of people now detained on British soil to 14, all of them men, while Abedi’s father and brother have been held in Libya, where officials said the two brothers were IS jihadists.

MI5 are also looking at decisions taken in the case of Abedi, who used to be on a terror watch list but was no longer on it at the time of the attack, and whether warnings about his behavior were ignored amid mounting criticism of the security services.

“There is a lot of information coming out at the moment about what happened, how this occurred, what people might or might not have known,” said Amber Rudd, Britain’s interior minister. “It is right that MI5 take a look to find out what the facts are.”

Two people who knew Abedi made separate calls to an anti-terrorism hot line to warn the police about his extremist views, British media reported. The Mail on Sunday also cited a source saying federal agents in the United States had been investigating Abedi since the middle of 2016 and had flagged up concerns to MI5.

British investigators have released pictures of Abedi taken from CCTV on the night of the massacre, appealing to the public for help in tracing his movements in the days before. Abedi could be seen wearing jeans and trainers, a black body warmer and a baseball cap, with the straps of the backpack believed to contain the bomb visible on his shoulders.

A police statement said one of the last places he went to before the attack at the Manchester Arena venue was a city center flat, where they believe he may have finished assembling the device.

None of the men arrested have yet been charged and police have up to 14 days in which to do so under special anti-terrorism laws.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday lowered the terror threat level, which was raised in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

In another sign of a lowering of security tensions, Victoria Station in Manchester, a major transport hub that was next to the blast site and has been shut since the tragedy, is due to reopen today.

Investigators said they have a 1,000-strong team working on the probe and have significant details on Abedi’s associates and movements, his finances, and how the bomb was built.




 

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