Greater Manchester Police that they have arrested two more men as part of the terrorist cell that prepared the suicide bombing attack in Manchester Arena last Monday that took the lives of 22 and injured more than 100 people.
The two men, aged 19 and 25, were arrested in Manchester and detained on suspicion of terrorist offences, thus the number of detained reached 13. All of those who remain in custody are men between 18 and 44 years old. One of them is the older brother of Salman Abedi who blew himself up at Ariana Grande’s concert on May 22. His younger brother and father were detained in Tripoli, Libya.
Police said that 1,000 people are working on the investigation and believe that they have dismantled a large part of the terrorist cell responsible for Manchester Arena attack.
“The operation is still at full tilt,” Home Secretary Amber Rudd said, adding that some suspects could remain at large. “Until the operation is complete, we can’t be entirely sure that it is closed.”
Police released surveillance-camera images of Abedi on the night of the attack that show him dressed in sneakers, jeans, a dark jacket and a baseball cap. The straps of a backpack are visible on his shoulders. They have asked anyone who has information about Abedi for the days prior to the attack to contact them.
Abedi returned from Libya on May 18 and most probably assembled the bomb in a rented apartment in Manchester.
On Saturday, Britain lowered its official terrorism threat level from “critical” to “severe”.
