Hunt for Manchester Bombing Accomplices Extends to Libya (original) (raw)
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A police officer standing guard outside the Manchester Islamic Center, a former church also known as the Didsbury Mosque, where the Abedi family worshiped.Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times
- May 24, 2017
MANCHESTER, England — The police accelerated their hunt Wednesday for co-plotters of the Manchester concert bombing, making at least a half-dozen arrests in Britain, searching for a possible clandestine bomb factory and extending the investigation to Libya, where two of the bomber’s relatives were detained.
The developments indicated that the bomber, Salman Abedi, 22, was part of a wider and more sophisticated plot than was initially thought and that finding the bomb’s origins had now become a priority in a country still reeling from the terrorist attack, the worst in Britain in more than a decade.
New details about the bomb, based on forensic photographs from the blast site, showed it may have been hidden in a blue backpack, had been made with cunning care to inflict horrific shrapnel damage, and had even been equipped with a backup detonation system.
A portrait of Mr. Abedi also came into focus, showing him to be a Manchester United fan, a college dropout and an occasional marijuana smoker who had visited his family in Libya last month, returned to Manchester as recently as last week, and may have been radicalized two years ago.
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Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old who carried out Britain’s deadliest terrorist attack since 2005.Credit...via Associated Press
These details of his life emerged as the police sought what they called his “network” — the first official confirmation that investigators believed Mr. Abedi had help.
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