29 May, 2017
Interior minister Amber Rudd declined to comment on exactly what was known about Abedi when asked in several interviews on Monday.
Manchester-born Abedi, a 22-year-old of Libyan origin, killed 22 people on Monday evening when he targeted a pop concert by United States teen idol Ariana Grande.
British police now have 13 suspects in custody - including Abedi's elder brother Ismail - and have searched properties across Manchester, a city in northwest England.
Police said they are working "around-the-clock" with more than 1,000 people involved in the investigation, pursuing more than 1,500 "actions". Another brother and Abedi's father are being held in Libya. The straps of a backpack are visible on his shoulders. Police on Sunday released new images of him in the hours leading up to the attack in an effort to garner potentially crucial information about his movements on that day.
Authorities say Abedi returned to Britain from Libya on May 18, and likely completed assembling his bomb at a rented apartment in central Manchester.
On Friday, UK Security Minister Ben Wallace told CNN in Manchester that there are "over 400 investigations now ongoing by the security services and police into terrorist planning or people thinking about terrorist planning".
Fourteen men are being held in custody with the massive operation to dismantle suicide bomber Salman Abedi's network showing little sign of slowing.
But security remained high at major events across Britain on Sunday, including the Great Manchester Run road race, where police armed with submachine guns protected thousands of participants and spectators.
"I've always had a pride in this city, ever since I was born", he said.
British authorities say they have disrupted five plots since March 22, when a terror attack outside Parliament in London left five people dead.
MI5 are looking at decisions taken in the case of Abedi, who used to be on a terror watch list but was no longer on it at the time of the attack, and whether warnings about his behaviour were ignored amid mounting criticism of the security services.
Rudd said Sunday that intelligence agencies were monitoring 3,000 suspected extremists and had a wider pool of 20,000 people of interest.
"The intelligence services are still collecting information about him but I wouldn't rush to conclusions, as you seem to be, that they have somehow missed something", Rudd said.
The family of Georgina Bethany Callander, an 18-year-old killed in the bombing, released a tribute late Saturday in which they called on the government to "open its eyes" to prevent further tragedy.
