In the twelve hours that followed the most heinous Islamic terror attack in months, UK police have identified the suicide bomber in Manchester as twenty-three year old Salman Abedi.
ISIS has claimed credit for the bombing that has now escalated to at least 22 deaths including one eight year old girl.
Public events around the world have been on heightened alert as ISIS continues to call for attacks on ‘soft targets’.
UK police have also arrested a second unnamed man in connection with the bombing.
Europe is overrun with radical Islamic sympathizers, and until a tougher response is taken these attacks will continue.
Here’s more from CBS News…
CBS News confirmed Tuesday that the man who blew himself up the previous night at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, was 23-year-old Salman Abedi, who was known to British authorities prior to the attack.
In a generic statement posted online, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for Abedi’s suicide bomb attack, which left 22 people dead, including children, at one of the entrances to the Manchester Arena.
Officials said one man was arrested Tuesday in southern Manchester in connection with the attack, and urged people to avoid the center of the city as raids continued at addresses around the city.
Police and British Prime Minister Theresa May made it clear the focus of the investigation was to determine whether the bomber “was acting alone, or was part of a wider group.”
ISIS issued its claim of responsibility in a brief, generic statement that did not identify the bomber and appeared to get some of the facts of the attack wrong. It claimed a “caliphate soldier managed to place a number of devices among a gathering of crusaders in Manchester, and detonated them.”
Officials say there was only one explosion, and there have been no indications that other devices were discovered at or near the arena.
U.S. intelligence sources told CBS News they were exercising caution on the early claim of responsibility from ISIS. Authorities are still looking into whether it was a killer who acted alone or who might have had some level of support from the terror network. U.S. intelligence officials were offering assistance in the investigation, as is standard practice in any case involving a close ally.
ISIS has repeatedly called for its supporters in the West to attack “soft targets” like sports events and concerts in any way possible.
