Prime Minister Theresa May announced the United Kingdom’s threat level has been raised from severe to critical, its highest level, on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, a day after a suicide bombing in Manchester left 22 dead and 59 wounded.
Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old man believed to have killed 22 people in a suspected suicide bombing, had ties to al Qaeda and had received terrorist training abroad, a U.S. intelligence official told NBC News Tuesday.
The U.S. intelligence official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, said Abedi was identified by a bank card found in his pocket at the scene of the explosion at Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert.
Abedi had traveled to Libya within the last 12 months, one of the multiple countries he had visited, the official said. And while he had "clear ties to al Qaeda," the official said, Abedi could have also had connections to other groups.
His own family, of Libyan descent, had even informed authorities about him in the past, telling British officials that he was dangerous, according to the intelligence official.
