United Kingdom – On the 22 May 17 in Manchester, United Kingdom a suicide bomber detonated himself at 2233 hours local at a pop festival held at the Manchester Arena. Witnesses claimed to have observed nuts and bolts (dockyard confetti) being part of the shrapnel. The blast occurred after the crowd was dispersing from the concert and the bomber detonated the device in the foyer of the arena. It is claimed that the singer, Ariana Grande, was encouraged to sing one more song at the end of the concert otherwise the foyer would have had more people in and the death and injury toll would have been higher. At the time of reporting the terrorist had claimed the lives of 22 people and 59 more injured, but the death toll could rise as some of the victims succumb to their injuries. The police were treating the incident as a terrorist attack and said that the terrorist died after the device was detonated. Greater Manchester police were asking those who attended the concert for any video and film footage that they had to be sent to them for scrutiny. At the time of reporting the police were unsure if this attack was carried out by a lone wolf or the bomber was part of a terrorist cell. Police issued arrest warrants in the areas of Whalley Range and Fallowfield where a controlled explosion occurred at approximately 1356 hrs. A man was reportedly arrested at approximately the same time in Chorlton shopping centre in connection with the terrorist attack. It was reported that an ID card was found near the blast and that police were following up on that but nothing has been reported at that point. Police named the bomber as 22 year old Salman Abedi who was born in Manchester in 1994, the second of four children. His parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime. Islamic State, while claiming responsibility on its Telegram account, appeared to contradict British police's description of a suicide bomber. It suggested explosive devices were placed "in the midst of the gatherings of the Crusaders". "What comes next will be more severe on the worshippers of the cross," the Telegram posting said. It did not name the bomber, which it usually does in attacks it has ordered, and appeared also to contradict a posting on another Islamic State account, Amaq, which spoke of "a group of attackers". That reference, however, was later removed. Islamic State supporters were celebrating the attack shortly after it happened. 361 COMMENT: With an ongoing investigation into the Manchester attack information will be slow when released to press and media outlets. Where other attacks have occurred in Europe such as Paris in Nov 15, Belgium in Mar 16 and St Petersburg, Russia in Apr 17 information is always slow due to the police uncovering information about the terrorist and following up on it. Investigation teams will not allow any information to be released in case the press or media report it as an exclusive and tip those who the authorities seek to ask questions. The police will be looking at several areas; did the bomber teach himself how to build a device and if so how? Was he taught if so by whom and how? Was he given the device which would indicate there is a bomb maker still in operation which may imply that he did not act alone and he was part of a cell structure and not a lone wolf. The attack was aimed at children and young adults with a conciseness of when, where and how to create the most damage and chaos. Although security, as usual, came under review the security apparatus that was in place appeared to have done its job as nothing happened before or during the concert. It’s possible that the bomber or whoever was behind the attack would have been aware of this and left it until people left the event to detonate the device. However, as with all social events no one takes any notice with security after the concert or other big event fixture. When people leave an event it’s a free-for-all as everyone wants to get away as soon as possible. As we have seen with this attack the terrorist or terrorists have identified this and used it to their own advantage. This appears to be the first of its sort and as we have seen with the terrorist use of vehicles this style of attack will no doubt be attempted again in the future. Corporations who field these types of events have no doubt paid lip service to these events, paid minimum wages and not given thought to much else apart from entry to the event and policing it whilst it goes on. There will be some who have some form of follow up action to those who are leaving but not many. It will be time to look at all events before, during and after now in order to ensure that it will not happen again, but large events bring in large crowds it will be difficult. One other point that will be looked at closely is the logistics to this well planned operation. To obtain all the material that is required to make up a suicide device there will be a trail of evidence for the authorities to follow. That will give them further evidence as to whether he was alone of had assistance. COMMENT ENDS
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