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Manchester Attacker Rented Apartment Where Bomb Was Made Britain Says It Has ‘Large Part’ of Manchester Bomber’s Network
(about 4 hours later)
MANCHESTER, England — The Manchester bomber opened a bank account about a year ago, drew money from it to buy nails and screws from two hardware stores, and rented an apartment where he built the explosive device that he used to kill 22 people, a law enforcement official said on Friday. MANCHESTER, England — British officials expressed confidence on Friday that they had rounded up the bulk of the Manchester bomber’s associates, and that their efforts to avert a follow-up attack appeared to be succeeding.
The bomber, Salman Abedi, is also believed to have assembled sufficient explosive material to have produced a second device, the official said. “We’ve got hold of a large part of network behind Manchester bombing,” said Mark Rowley, the top counterterrorism official for the Metropolitan Police in London.
According to an American congressman, Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, the bomber’s backpack was loaded with TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, the same explosive used in attacks in London in 2005, in Paris in 2015 and in Brussels in 2016. Eight men, ages 18 to 38, were in custody, and searches were still taking place at 12 locations in the Manchester area, the city’s top police official, Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, said at a news conference. “There has been enormous progress with the investigation, but there’s still an awful lot of work to do,” he said.
Officers raided a barbershop in the Moss Side neighborhood of Manchester early Friday and detained a 30-year-old man, bringing to eight the number of men — ages 16 to 30 — arrested in connection with the investigation. (Another man and a woman who had been arrested have been released.) The latest raids occurred on Friday morning at a barbershop in the Moss Side neighborhood and at a pizza restaurant in St. Helens, a town about 22 miles west of Manchester.
Some details about the bank account, the hardware items and the apartment were first reported by The Times of London and The Telegraph on Friday. The law enforcement official who confirmed those details did so on the condition of anonymity because the Manchester police have prohibited unauthorized disclosures about the case. Normal rhythms began to resume across Britain, even though the nation was on its highest level of alert — “critical,” meaning another attack could be “expected imminently” — and was to remain so at least through the weekend. Public events, including the Great Manchester Run, a 10-kilometer race and half-marathon in the city that is scheduled for Sunday, will take place as planned. Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to protect important sites around the country and to give relief to police forces.
“There was so much material left behind that it clearly could have been turned into at least one other bomb,” the official said. Campaigning for the country’s parliamentary election has resumed, and with polls showing the race tightening, the opposition Labour Party opened a line of criticism, asserting that Prime Minister Theresa May, who was previously the home secretary, and the governing Conservative Party had made Britain more vulnerable by pursuing a bellicose foreign policy and by cutting security budgets at home.
Britain has been on its highest level of alert since Tuesday, with hundreds of soldiers deployed to protect important sites around the country and to give relief to police forces. “Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home,” the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said in a speech.
The British home secretary, Amber Rudd, said on Friday that the alert level would remain at “critical” — meaning another attack “is expected imminently” — at least through the weekend. But public events, including the Great Manchester Run, a 10-kilometer race and half-marathon in the city that is scheduled for Sunday, will take place as planned. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon retorted that Mr. Corbyn was unfit to be prime minister. “He said only days after one of the worst terrorist atrocities this country has ever known that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault,” Mr. Fallon declared.
“The police have been engaging with organizers of events to ensure they get all the support at those events that people want to have, and they may see some additional military presence,” Ms. Rudd said. “But I hope they will take comfort from that and they will feel more secure. We must not let this terrible terrorist incident impact on our lives.” Mrs. May, speaking in Sicily at a G-7 summit meeting attended by President Trump, said Mr. Abedi’s ties to Libya “undoubtedly shine a spotlight on this largely ungoverned space on the edge of Europe.”
Ms. Rudd and Prime Minister Theresa May, among other British officials, have expressed frustration with the American government after several news organizations, including The New York Times, published details of the investigation. President Trump expressed outrage over the leaks on Thursday and called for a Justice Department investigation. The bomber, Salman Abedi, 22, a native of Manchester, killed 22 people and injured at least 70 others on Monday night when he blew himself up as a pop concert by the American singer Ariana Grande was ending at Manchester Arena.
On Friday, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, on a visit to London to meet Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said the United States accepted full responsibility for what had happened. The Manchester police, who had said that they would stop sharing information with American counterparts, have now resumed doing so. Mr. Abedi was from the city’s large Libyan community, his parents having fled the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in the early 1990s. The family returned to Libya — only temporarily, in the case of Salman and his elder brother — after Britain, France and the United States led a NATO campaign that helped topple Qaddafi in 2011.
The authorities have been scrambling to find out whether the bomber, Mr. Abedi, 22, received help; how the bomb was built; and whether there were plans for another attack. The authorities have been scrambling to find out whether the bomber, Mr. Abedi, 22, received help; how the bomb was built; and whether there were plans for another attack. There were many lingering worries on Friday, most gravely the possibility that Mr. Abedi might have assembled sufficient explosive material to produce a second bomb.
Born in 1994 to parents who had migrated a year earlier from Libya, Mr. Abedi was a largely unremarkable child, a fan of soccer and movies, and a diffident student, according to neighbors and friends. Mr. Abedi opened a bank account a year ago, drew money from it to buy nails and screws from two hardware stores, and rented an apartment where he assembled the bomb, a law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the authorities have prohibited unauthorized disclosures of investigative details, said on Friday. “There was so much material left behind that it clearly could have been turned into at least one other bomb,” the official said.
In 2011, after the overthrow of the longtime dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, the family, including Mr. Abedi and his two brothers and sister, returned to the North African country. But they quickly found the education system in the chaotic country unsuitable, and at least two of the siblings — Mr. Abedi and his older brother, Ismail — returned to Britain. Some details about the bank account, the hardware items and the apartment were first reported by The Times of London and The Telegraph on Friday.
They continued visiting Libya, however, and Mr. Abedi’s most recent trip there was about a month ago. According to friends, Mr. Abedi’s father, Ramadan, urged him to leave Britain because Salman had exhibited dangerous signs of radicalization; in an interview, the father disputed that account, hours before he himself was arrested by a Libyan militia on Wednesday. According to an American congressman, Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, the bomber’s backpack was most likely loaded with TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, the explosive used in attacks in London in 2005, in Paris in 2015 and in Brussels in 2016.
On May 18, Salman Abedi returned to Britain, having traveled through Istanbul and Düsseldorf, Germany. He visited a shopping center near his home on May 19, where he was recorded on CCTV buying a Karrimor backpack used in the attack. Investigators say they believe he helped assemble the main components of the device, including the switch, over the weekend, in a one-bedroom apartment he had rented for 75 pounds, or about $96, a night in Granby House, in Granby Row, a 1908 red brick building with Portland stone dressing and Art Nouveau motifs. A security minister, Ben Wallace, told CNN: “We are following up on the network, rolling it up, trying to contain it. As you’ve seen from the number of arrests, we are on the right track to try to contain it. In the end you get to the bottom of a network.”
Mr. Abedi took to the apartment hardware items he had bought from two chain stores, B&Q and Screwfix, using money he had deposited in a bank account about a year earlier, according to the official. The domestic intelligence agency MI5, which is facing scrutiny over warnings it had been given about Mr. Abedi’s descent into radicalization, said this week that it was dealing with about 500 active investigations relating to 3,000 people of interest and that it had foiled 18 plots of varying seriousness since 2013, including five since March.
On Monday, Mr. Abedi traveled to the apartment from his family’s home on Elsmore Road in the city’s Fallowfield neighborhood. He then made his way from the apartment, which is near the Manchester Piccadilly train station and the Gay Village district, to Manchester Arena, where he set off the crude but powerful bomb around 10:30 p.m., killing 22 people and wounding at least 64 others. Prime Minister May, among other British officials, expressed frustration with the American government after several American news organizations published unauthorized details of the investigation. (The New York Times published images of a battery, a backpack and shrapnel from the attack, but did not disclose the source of the information.)
The house on Elsmore Road was raided on Tuesday, and there are conflicting accounts of what police officers found there. The apartment on Granby Row was raided on Wednesday. A passer-by, Mark Clayton, recorded video while the raid was carried out that shows a young man being taken away in handcuffs. Along with the raids that continued on Friday, investigators returned to a building in Manchester’s city center, where Mr. Abedi had rented a one-bedroom apartment for 75 pounds, or about $96, a night. The building, Granby House, on Granby Row, a 1908 red brick building with Portland stone dressing and Art Nouveau motifs.
However, the police have not confirmed if that man is one of the eight men who are in custody, or whether he had any involvement in the attack. Mr. Abedi returned to Britain on May 18 from a visit to his parents in Libya, having traveled through Istanbul and Düsseldorf, Germany. He visited a shopping center near his home on May 19, where he was recorded on CCTV buying a Karrimor backpack used in the attack. Investigators say Mr. Abedi brought hardware items he had bought from two chain stores, B&Q and Screwfix, to the apartment over the weekend.
The authorities returned to the apartment on Granby Row on Friday, and officers in forensic suits were seen rummaging through large garbage bins in the building’s basement. On Friday, officers in forensic suits could be seen rummaging through large garbage bins in the building’s basement.
Like other police officials, Mr. Rowley, of the Metropolitan Police, would not divulge specifics, but he said in a statement: “Broadly speaking, as with any investigation of this nature, we are focusing on understanding Abedi’s life; forensically examining a number of scenes, reviewing hours of CCTV from the night itself and the hours and before, financial work, communication, digital exhibits, the accounts from hundreds of witnesses and of course inquiries internationally.”
At an afternoon news conference, Chief Constable Hopkins said that hundreds of police officers from around Britain were involved in the investigation. “We have seized thousands of exhibits that are now being assessed,” he said. “
The last of the 22 victims has been publicly identified as Megan Hurley, a 15-year-old from Halewood, near Liverpool. She had attended the concert with her older brother, who was injured.