英경찰, 맨체스터 자폭범 테러 네트워크 추적
Seven people have been arrested so far in connection to Monday's suicide bombing at Manchester Arena.
At least three of them are members of the bomber's family.
Authorities are cracking down on what they believe is a network responsible for the attack, which killed 22 people, including children, who were attending a pop concert.
Ro Aram has the details.
The father and two brothers of suicide bomber Salman Abedi have been arrested in a series of raids after Monday's attack.
The father, Ramadan, was in the middle of an interview with Reuters at his home in Tripoli defending his son on Wednesday when he was detained by Libyan counterterrorism police.
The bomber's younger brother, Hashem, was also arrested in Tripoli.
Back in England, Salman's older brother, Ismail, was detained in southern Manchester, while another man was arrested by undercover armed police in Wigan for carrying a suspicious package.
A woman was the sixth to be arrested after a raid in Blackley in northern Manchester, and a seventh man was detained in Warwickshire.
All these people are suspected of being involved in Monday night's attack after an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena.
Reuters - Edit No. 3293
"I think it's very clear that this is a network that we are investigating. And as I've said, it continues at a pace. There's extensive investigations going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak. So thank you very much ladies and gentlemen."
Authorities believe Salman had help building the bomb, which killed 22 people and injured nearly 60 others.
Meanwhile, leaked photographs from the scene published by the New York Times showed what looks to be blood-stained remnants of a sophisticated and powerful bomb.
The leaks infuriated the British authorities, who said the breaches of trust between security service partners were undermining their efforts.
The New York Times published the photos just hours after Britain's Interior minister Amber Rudd said London wanted to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity.
A counter-terrorism official said the damage is even greater when it involves the unauthorized disclosure of potential evidence in the middle of a major counter-terrorism investigation.
It remains to be seen whether this anger will be relayed by Prime Minister Theresa May to President Donald Trump when they meet for a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Meanwhile, with Britain's threat level now at its highest of "critical," just under a thousand of the nearly four thousand troops available have been deployed across the UK.
Ro Aram, Arirang News.
