Hashem Abedi, the younger brother of the Manchester bomber, has been arrested. Photo / Facebook
Hashem Abedi, the younger brother of the Manchester bomber, has been arrested. Photo / Facebook
A woman was arrested in Manchester after an armed raid on a block of flats in relation to Monday night's chilling attack.
The bomber's father and two brothers have also been arrested on suspicion of links to Islamic State.
Suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, killed 22 people when he detonated a nail bomb after a concert at Manchester Arena on Monday night. His youngest victim was just 8 years old.
The Telegraph reports Abedi's 20-year-old brother, Hashem Abedi, was arrested on Tuesday night in Libya's capital Tripoli by counter-terrorism forces.
On Wednesday, the attacker's older brother, Ismail, was arrested after police raids in the UK.
On the same day, in Libya, three armed vehicles arrived to take away their father, Ramadan Abedi, an administrative manager of the Central Security Force in Tripoli.
According to a former security official in Libya, Abdel-Basit Haroun, Ramadan Abedi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in the 1990s. The group had links to al-Qaeda.
Although the Fighting Group disbanded, Haroun said the elder Abedi belongs to the Salafi Jihadi movement, the most extreme sect of Salafism - an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam, and from which al-Qaeda and Islamic State hail.
The Abedi family are believed to live between Libya and Manchester, where the children were born and grew up.
Six people have now been arrested over Monday night's attack, which injured 119 people.
Salman Abedi, right, the Manchester bomber, is pictured on the beach as a teen in Libya. Photo / Facebook
Dad: 'We don't believe in killing innocents'
The family's arrest comes hours after Ramadan Abedi claimed his son was innocent.
"We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us," he said, according to the Express.
"My son was as religious as any child who opens his eyes in a religious family. As we were discussing news of similar attacks earlier, he was always against those attacks, saying there's no religious justification for them. I don't understand how he'd have become involved in an attack that led to the killing of children."
Speaking from Tripoli, Ramadan Abedi said his son sounded "normal" when they spoke five days ago and claims he was preparing to visit Saudi Arabia.
Ramadan Abedi fled Tripoli in 1993 after Muammar al-Gaddafi's security authorities issued an arrest warrant. He eventually sought political asylum in Britain.
Salman Abedi, 22, has been named as the Manchester Arena bomber. Photo / AP
Salman Abedi 'known to intelligence services'
Police said the Manchester Arena bomber was known to intelligence services "up to a point" and that the "probably went to Syria". The Telegraph reports Abedin is thought to have returned from Libya just days ago after a three-week visit.
US intelligence officials told NBC News that Abedi was identified at the scene of the bombing by a bank card found in his pocket. The identification was confirmed by facial recognition technology.
He also had ties to al-Qaeda, had received terrorist training abroad, and members of his own family informed on him in the past, according to NBC News.
Britain's Interior Minister Amber Rudd said the suicide bomber was likely not acting alone.
Police on Wednesday said they were investigating a "terror network", and that up to 3800 soldiers would be deployed on UK streets at "key locations" after the attack.
Armed police keep guard near Victoria Station in Manchester, England. Photo / AP
Police raid homes across Manchester
Police raided properties across Manchester on Wednesday, including flats in a stone and brick building on Granby Row.
Building residents said they were startled first by the sound of a fire alarm and then the sight of heavily armed anti-terror police on Wednesday.
They were escorted out of the building as police broke through the door to one of the flats shortly after 12.30pm local time.
Neighbours told the Manchester Evening News that the flat was regularly leased through an online rental agency..
"I got down to the front door and instead of the fire brigade, armed police with a machine gun and mask were there," Louise Bolotin, a freelance journalist who lives in Granby House, told the Evening News. "I was like 'what is going on?' About four or five minutes after more armed police in masks came out."
Loads of police still outside Granby House, one went in carrying what looked like a first aid kit pic.twitter.com/k5leaBqHUr
— 🐝Louise *Wearing a Mask* Bolotin 🐝 (@louisebolotin) May 24, 2017
Omar Alfakhuri says he woke up to find the street filled with police including armed officers who were shouting at the family pic.twitter.com/tzQ1h3fsE9
Media reported neighbours as saying they saw police raid a property early this morning (local time).
A 23-year-old was arrested in the South Manchester area on Tuesday in relation to the bombing.
Police said four people in total have been arrested.
During the day thousands of locals packed central city streets in Manchester to honour those killed and injured when Abedi set off a bomb packed with nails, bolts and ball-bearings at a concert at Manchester Arena being performed by American pop star Ariana Grande.
They vowed not to be defeated or divided by terrorism, and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said: "Today it will be business as usual as far as possible in our great city."
But in Downing St, officials warned Prime Minister Theresa May that the risk of another terror strike was critical.
Police forensic investigators search the property of Salman Abedi over the concert bombing. Photo / AP
Ariana Grande suspends tour
Ariana Grande's management team says she has suspended her world tour until June 5 in the wake of the bombing at her concert in Manchester.
The pop star, who was on a European leg of her Dangerous Woman tour, cancelled stops scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the 02 Arena in London. She also cancelled a May 28 stop in Antwerp, Belgium, concerts in Lodz, Poland, on May 31 and June 1 as well as shows in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 3, and Zurich, Switzerland, on June 5.
Grande, who reportedly is in Boca Raton, Florida, with her family, has kept a low profile since Monday's blast, which killed 22, including an 8-year-old girl. She took to Twitter afterward to say she was "broken" and "i don't have words".
Ariana Grande has suspended her world tour. Photo / AP
Queen in security scare
In an unrelated incident, police detained a man outside Buckingham Palace as a car believed to be carrying the Queen drove past. He was held to the ground by police who took him away in the back of a police van.
Scotland Yard have since confirmed the man arrested was in possession of a knife, but the scare was not believed terror-related.
At 10:40am patrolling officers detained & arrested a man in The Mall in poss. of a knife. No injuries. Not believed to be terrorist related
Greater Manchester Police say they are now "confident" they have identified the 22 people killed in the attack and that all families have been informed.
"Due to the number of victims, forensic post-mortems are likely to take four or five days," police said. "After this we will be in a position to formally name the victims with guidance from the coroner."
Saffie Roussos, eight, died in the attack. Photo / AP
Among those killed was an off-duty police officer and mother-of-two, whose husband was also at the concert and is understood to be critically injured. Their two children are also said to be receiving treatment.
"Very sadly I can confirm one of the victims was a serving officer," Manchester chief constable Ian Hopkins said at a press conference. "In respecting the family's wishes I will make no further comment at this stage."
Georgina Callander, 18, was one of the 22 people killed. She is here pictured with singer Ariana Grande. Photo / Supplied
Hopkins said officers had spoken to all the families of the 22 people killed in the bomb blast. "We are doing all we can to support them," he said.
Also killed was Nell Jones, 14. The Cheshire student's school, Holmes Chapel Comprehensive, confirmed the death. Her parents rushed to Manchester to search for their daughter, whom they had reported missing after the concert.
"I have just done six assemblies to tell the pupils. Children are all over the place crying. We are all devastated," head teacher Dennis Oliver said about breaking the news to Nell's schoolmates.
Nell's friends described her as a bright teen and a "very popular girl" who was always bright, positive and smiling.
A 29-year-old PR manager, Martyn Hett, also died in the blast. Hett's partner Russell Hayward, who had appeared with his "soulmate" on the TV show Come Dine with Me, confirmed the tragic news in a tweet.
"We got the news last night that our wonderful, iconic and beautiful Martyn didn't survive," Hayward wrote.
"He left the world exactly how he lived, centre of attention. I'm in a really bad way so please forgive if I don't reply. Thankfully I have his wonderful and amazing friends to keep each other strong, I love you Martyn. I always will."
Soulmate doesn't even come close. Come back to us Martyn so we can watch last nights Corrie together 💔 pic.twitter.com/cXbehUgoxc
A married Polish couple who went to the concert to collect their daughters also died. Margin and Angelika Klis were in the foyer of the stadium, waiting to take their daughters home to York, when the bomb was detonated.
Their daughters had been running a social media campaign looking for their father, 42, and mother, 40. One of their children was a student at the University of York.
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told radio R FM FM a Polish couple had died, although their daughters had been found safe.
"The parents came after the concert to collect their daughters and unfortunately we have information that they are dead," he said.
John Atkinson, 26, was killed at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. Photo / Supplied
Also among the dead were two mothers who went to collect their teenage daughters from the concert, an aunt who shielded her sister and niece from the blast, two 15-year-old girls, an 18-year-old girl, a 26-year-old man, and the tiniest victim, 8-year-old Ariana Grande fan Saffie Rose Roussos.
Distraught pop princess Grande, a Nickelodeon TV starlet who transitioned into pop and whose fan base is heavily built on young girls and teenagers, flew into her home city of Boca Raton, Florida.
She stepped off a private jet and into the arms of her boyfriend, Mac Miller.
She has tweeted that she is "broken" by the carnage unleashed on her young fans, and has suspended her Dangerous Woman tour of Europe.
Angelika and Marcin Klis have been named as victims of the Manchester suicide bomber. Photo / Facebook
Attacker unmasked
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Abedi, the British-born son of Libyan refugees, was known to security services "up to a point".
"It seems likely, possible, that he wasn't doing this on his own," she said.
Rudd said it was not yet known if Abedi had carried out the attack on behalf of Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility.
Abedi was a university dropout with "proven" links to Islamic State, according to France's interior minister.
Born to a devoutly Muslim Libyan family in Britain's third biggest city, officials said he was known to British security services and the Financial Times reported he had turned to radical Islam.
Abedi worshipped at a mosque in a leafy Manchester suburb popular with students.
His father was reportedly a well-known figure who sometimes performed the call to prayer.
Abedi "grew up in Britain and then suddenly, after a trip to Libya and then likely to Syria, became radicalised and decided to carry out this attack", French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told BFMTV.
He said it was "possible" that Abedi had had assistance from other people, adding that his links with Islamic State which claimed responsibility for the carnage "are proven".
Abedi's family had lived in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester for at least 10 years, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Abedi's family were closely linked to the Didsbury Mosque, a Victorian former Methodist chapel in a leafy suburb that was bought in 1967 by donors from the Syrian community.
Ramadan Abedi had sometimes performed the call to prayer and his brother Ismail had been a volunteer.
One senior figure from the mosque, Mohammed Saeed, told the Guardian that when he once gave a sermon denouncing terror, Salman Abedi stared him down.
"Salman showed me a face of hate after that sermon," Saeed said of the 2015 encounter. "He was showing me hatred."
A woman looks at the floral tributes and messages left for the victims of the concert blast. Photo / AP
Security clamp-down
The Palace of Westminster, where UK's Parliament is housed, was last night closed to the public and everyone without the appropriate security passes. The move was based on police advice, but no details were released.
With the terror threat raised to critical, the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, which always attracts crowds of tourists, was cancelled on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Defence said it was to allow the "deployment of police".
Scotland Yard has confirmed troops will replace police at locations including Buckingham Palace, Downing St and Westminster.
Up to 1000 heavily armed troops are being deployed on to streets across the United Kingdom as the terror threat was raised to critical.
The government has activated Operation Temperer, a plan to replace some police patrols with 984 heavily armed troops, and increase police presence at major sporting events and tourist landmarks.
Theresa May raised the terror threat level from severe to critical for the first time in almost 10 years, meaning the risk of terror striking on UK soil was now imminent.
May said she did not want to "unduly alarm" the public but warned: "It is a possibility we cannot ignore that there is a wider group of individuals linked to this attack."
The FA Cup final is scheduled for Saturday at Wembley Stadium, and it is likely the public will see troops patrolling as soon as this weekend.
Police forensic investigators search the property of Salmon Abedi today. Photo / AP
Investigation advances
In Manchester, investigators are working to determine if Abedi was acting alone, or as part of an Islamist network.
Forensic specialists are sifting the remnants of the bomb he detonated inside the foyer at the Manchester Arena as thousands of young concertgoers left the arena at the end of the concert, and seized a handbook entitled "Know your Chemicals" from his home in south Manchester.
They have also obtained CCTV vision of him approaching the arena.
Special Forces were deployed to Manchester in the hunt for anyone who may have been an accomplice to Abedi.
Police from the Tactical Aid Unit prepare to enter Granby House apartments in Manchester England. Photo / AP
Manchester unites
Even as the roads around Manchester Arena and the adjoining Victoria train station remain cordoned off, thousands of people packed into the CBD to stand against terrorism.
Senior figures including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Rudd, Commons Speaker John Bercow and sporting hero, former cricket captain Freddie Flintoff were in the crowd.
Mayor Burnham said Manchester would grow stronger.
"I wanted to thank the people of Manchester. Even in the minutes after the attack, they opened their doors to strangers and drove them away from danger.
"It will be that spirit of Manchester that will prevail and hold us together."
