Britain struggles to prioritise security targets as terrorist threat grows
Manchester suicide bomber was known to intelligence officials, but only peripherally
London — This week’s deadly suicide bombing has re-ignited a long-running debate about how British intelligence decides which potential extremists to watch given the limited resources at its disposal. Like Khalid Masood, who killed five people in an attack in London in March, the suspected Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi, had been known to security officials. But both appeared to be on the periphery of investigations, illustrating the challenges in monitoring a growing roster of potentially dangerous radicals. While its island geography gives Britain an advantage in monitoring new arrivals, homegrown extremists — many with loose or no concrete ties to terror groups — are often difficult to track.
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