LONDON: The attack on a Manchester pop concert that killed 22 people was “likely” the work of more than one person, British interior minister Amber Rudd said Wednesday.
“It was a devastating occasion, it was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we’ve seen before, and it seems likely — possible — that he wasn’t doing this on his own,” she told BBC radio.
Rudd confirmed that bomber Salman Abedi, a British man of Libyan heritage who died in the explosion on Monday night, had been on the radar of the security services.
“We do know that he was known up to a point to the intelligence services,” she told Sky News.
Clarifying this on the BBC she said: “The security services will know a lot of people. It doesn’t mean that they’re expected to arrest everybody they know.
“But it is somebody that they had known.”
She said she had “complete confidence” in the security services.
The minister said she was “not surprised at all” that the attack had been claimed by the Daesh group, but said there was no information yet to confirm the extremist organization’s active direction.
Britain’s national terror threat level was raised late Tuesday to “critical,” meaning another attack may be imminent, following the attack on the concert of US singer Ariana Grande.
London police said Wednesday they would be calling in the army to help guard key landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and foreign embassies.
Manchester bomber was ‘likely’ acting with others: minister
Manchester bomber was ‘likely’ acting with others: minister
Amnesty International says at least 30 dead in separatist attack in southeastern Nigeria
The rights group said “international law requires the Nigerian government to promptly investigate unlawful killings”
ABUJA: At least 30 people have been killed after gunmen attacked travelers on a major highway in the southeastern part of Nigeria, rights group Amnesty International said.
The rights group said more than 20 vehicles and trucks were set ablaze during the Thursday attack along the Okigwe-Owerri highway in Imo state. Police confirmed the attack but not the death toll.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but police suspect the Eastern Security Network, the paramilitary wing of the proscribed separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra.
The secessionist campaign in southeastern Nigeria dates back to when the short-lived Republic of Biafra fought and lost a civil war from 1967 to 1970 to become independent from the West African country. An estimated 1 million people died in the conflict, many from starvation.
The rights group said “international law requires the Nigerian government to promptly investigate unlawful killings with a view to bringing perpetrators to justice.”
One suspect connected to the attack was killed in a joint operation by law enforcement agencies, police spokesperson Okoye Henry said in a statement.
“An intensive manhunt is ongoing to apprehend the fleeing suspects and bring them to justice,” Henry said.
Two of the group’s prominent leaders, Nnamdi Kanu and Simon Ekpa, are in custody in Nigeria and Finland, respectively.
Kanu is standing trial on a seven-count charge bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Nigerian government said Friday it has not begun extradition proceedings but is in talks with Finnish authorities to ensure Ekpa is held accountable for his alleged actions.
For many years Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation with at least 210 million people — has been wracked by violence related to the activities of armed extremist groups.
Polish nationalists stage anti-immigration demo ahead of polls
- The protest, organized by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland
- Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election
WARSAW: Several thousand people demonstrated in Warsaw on Saturday against illegal immigration and the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a week before the EU member chooses a new president.
The protest, organized by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland, who carried the red and white national flag and chanted slogans such as “no to immigration.”
Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election.
Poland currently hosts around one million refugees from the war in neighboring Ukraine, and has accused Russia and Belarus of orchestrating a wave of immigration into the European Union member.
The protesters made their way toward the seat of government in central Warsaw, chanting the name of nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.
The 42-year-old fan of US President Donald Trump has the backing of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party and outgoing President Andrzej Duda.
He is polling second in the presidential race, with around 25 percent support.
The frontrunner, Warsaw’s pro-European Union Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, has the support of Tusk’s Civic Coalition and is polling on 32 percent.
“Poland has to defend itself against illegal immigration. These migrants have their own countries. They should stay there,” 66-year-old farmer Boguslaw Uchmanowicz told AFP.
Taliban arrest 14 people for playing music and singing
- Those detained were under investigation
- Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music
KABUL: Taliban authorities have arrested 14 people in northern Afghanistan for playing musical instruments and singing, activities they restricted since taking power, provincial police said on Saturday.
The Taliban government has steadily imposed laws and regulations that reflect their austere vision of Islamic law since seizing power in 2021.
This includes cracking down on music in public, from live performances to playing at gatherings, in restaurants, in cars or on radio and TV.
The police said in a statement that on Thursday night in the capital of northern Takhar province “fourteen individuals... took advantage of the nighttime to gather in a residential house where they were playing musical instruments and singing songs, which caused disturbance to the public.”
Those detained were under investigation, it added.
After their takeover, Taliban authorities shuttered music schools and smashed or burned musical instruments and sound systems, saying music caused “moral corruption” and public disturbance.
Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music, though segregated women’s sections often do so secretly.
Many Afghan musicians fled the Taliban takeover out of fear or in need of work after losing their livelihoods in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The Taliban authorities have encouraged former musicians to turn their talents to Islamic poetry and unaccompanied vocal chants — the only forms of music allowed under their previous rule from 1996-2001.
Newly elected Reform UK councillors face scrutiny over Islamophobic social media posts
- Party made major breakthrough at last week’s local elections
- Campaign group: ‘They have yet to drop any of the candidates that have been exposed’
LONDON: Up to a dozen newly elected councillors from Reform UK have been accused of posting Islamophobic and far-right content on social media, The Guardian reported on Saturday.
It comes a week after the party made a major breakthrough in local elections across the country, winning 677 of the more than 1,600 contested seats.
Reform UK councillors at three country councils have shared social media content from Britain First, a far-right party known for its anti-Islam views.
Paul Harrison, who was elected to Leicestershire’s county council, retweeted and voted “yes” to an X poll asking if the UK should conduct mass deportations.
The post was accompanied by an image, generated by artificial intelligence, of Muslim men holding Pakistani flags.
Reform UK officials are facing greater scrutiny in the wake of the local elections, with many of the social media posts being revealed by counter-extremism campaign group Hope Not Hate.
Its director of campaigns, Georgie Laming, said: “(Party leader) Nigel Farage has claimed that Reform UK have the ‘most in-depth vetting procedure’ of any party. Our investigation shows that their processes leave much to be desired.
“Not only have they admitted using ‘AI techniques and other things’ to do the vetting, but Reform UK continue to shirk responsibility for their candidates’ online behaviour. They have yet to drop any of the candidates that have been exposed.”
The campaign group previously uncovered Islamophobic content posted by Reform candidates on social media, as well as far-right conspiracies and support for extremist figures including Tommy Robinson and David Irving.
Nigerian state bans petrol aiming to curb militant attacks
- “I have directed the immediate ban on the sale of petrol in Bama town,” Borno state governor said
- The ban is part of the “state government’s strategic response to counter insurgency operations“
KANO: Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, the epicenter of the militant insurgency, on Saturday said it was banning the sale of petrol in a bid to curtail a resurgence of militant attacks.
“I have directed the immediate ban on the sale of petrol in Bama town, ...and other parts of Bama Local Government Area with immediate effect,” Borno state governor Babagana Umara Zulum was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office.
The ban is part of the “state government’s strategic response to counter insurgency operations,” the statement added.
The cutting of fuel supplies for vehicles is expected to restrict the militants’ mobility.
The town targeted by the ban is the largest after the state capital Maiduguri, and sits on the fringes of Sambisa forest, a major enclave of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter group of Boko Haram.
The town witnessed the worst devastation by Boko Haram militants who seized it in 2014 and killed hundreds of residents.
Northeastern Nigeria has seen an upsurge in Islamist militant attacks in recent weeks, reigniting a grinding 16-year conflict that has left more than 40,000 dead and displaced some two million people.
More than 100 people have been killed in the region since April.
The state of Borno in particular, where the Boko Haram militant group emerged 16 years ago, remains the epicenter of the conflict in Africa’s most populous country.
