MANCHESTER: Britain raced on Wednesday to track down a jihadist network suspected of orchestrating the Manchester concert bombing, as soldiers fanned out to guard key sites under a maximum terror alert. Investigators were trying to piece together the last movements of suicide bomber Salman Abedi.

The government annou­nced a nationwide minute’s silence for Thursday morning in memory of the 22 people killed and dozens wounded in Monday night’s bombing. A girl aged just eight was among the victims of the attack, which was claimed by the IS.

It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents across Europe claimed by IS that have coincided with an offensive on the group’s redoubts in Syria and Iraq carried out by US, British and other Western forces.

Officials said the 22-year-old Abedi had been on the radar of the intelligence community before the massacre at a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande, and warned another attack “may be imminent”.

After arresting a 23-year-old man on Tuesday, police said they had taken three more men into custody on Wednesday in south Manchester, where Abedi lived. A fifth man who was carrying a suspect package was then detained in Wigan, west of the city. An armed raid was also carried out in Manchester city centre on Wednesday, during which police said a nearby railway line had to be “briefly closed”.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said Abedi had “likely” been to Syria after a trip to Libya, citing information provided by British intelligence services to their counterparts in Paris. “In any case, the links with Daesh are proven,” he said, as Libyan authorities announced the arrest of one of Abedi’s two brothers in the country.

Hundreds of armed military personnel meanwhile fanned out to take up guard duties at the British parliament and Buckingham Palace — a highly unusual sight on the streets of Britain since the end of the Northern Ireland conflict in the 1990s.

British Prime Minister Theresa May placed the country on its highest level of terror alert — “critical” — for the first time since June 2007, when it was sparked by an attack on Glasgow airport. The Changing of the Guard, a military ceremony in front of Buckingham Palace popular with tourists, was cancelled on Wednesday and the Houses of Parliament suspended all public events.

A total of 64 people are being treated in hospital, including 20 in critical care, medical officials said. Twelve of the injured are aged under 16.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017