Abedi sourced bomb alone, say officials

The north-west counter-terrorism unit have reported that Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber, acted largely alone in the run-up to his suicide attack at Manchester Arena. Concerns of a potential terror ‘network’ have been investigated, but the police are now reporting that the 22-year-old Manchester-born Abedi shopped alone for most of the components he used to make the bomb, having examined Abedi’s phone records, along with CCTV footage, to begin to piece together his movements in the run-up to the attack. After his attack killed 22 concertgoers on 22 May, police remain open to the possibility that Abedi may have had accomplices, and have arrested 16 people in connection with the investigation so far. Det Ch Supt Russ Jackson said: “Our inquiries show Abedi himself made most of the purchases of the core components and what is becoming apparent is that many of his movements and actions have been carried out alone during the four days from him landing in the country and committing this awful attack. “It is vital that we make sure that he is not part of a wider network and we cannot rule this out yet. There remain a number of things that concern us about his behaviour prior to the attack and those of his associates which we need to get to the bottom of.”