May 23, 2017

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Manchester Attack

PM May raises UK terror threat level to critical and deploys military personnel to assist police.

Rex/AP

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Update, May 23, 5 p.m. EST: Believing another attack to be highly likely, and possibly imminent, British Prime Minister Theresa May raised the country’s terror threat level from “severe” to “critical” Monday night, local time—the highest possible level. May also announced the deployment of military personnel to assist ongoing police operations.

Update, May 23, 11:35 a.m. EST: British authorities have identified the suspected attacker as Salman Abedi.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide bombing in Manchester, England, that killed at least 22 people, including children, and injured more than 50 at an Ariana Grande concert Monday evening.

The terrorist tracking group SITE first reported ISIS’ statement praising the “soldier” behind the attack. The statement did not include the bomber’s name.

It is not clear, however, what role the terrorist group may have played in carrying out the terrorist attack, whether it was actively involved in its planning or inspired the attacker’s motives.

Police officials said they believe the bombing was carried out by one man with an “improvised detonation device” who died at the scene. On Tuesday morning, authorities also confirmed the arrest of a 23-year-old man in connection with the attack.

Speaking from the West Bank on Tuesday, President Donald Trump denounced the attackers as “evil losers.” He said he would specifically decline to describe them as “monsters,” because he believed they would “like that term.”

“I will call them from now on ‘losers’ because that’s what they are,” Trump said at a press conference alongside Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. “They are losers, and we’ll have more of them, but they are losers. Remember that.”

Monday’s attack is the country’s deadliest since the 2005 bombings of the London subway system.

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