Islamic State’s claim of responsibility echoed others the group has made for attacks in the West but with vague details that left open the possibility it was an opportunistic attempt at propaganda. Manchester itself has seen terror before, but not this deadly. The city was hit by a huge Irish Republican Army bomb in 1996 that leveled a swath of the city center. More than 200 people were injured, although no one was killed.
The bombing also elicited painful memories of the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, where most of the 130 killed were at the Bataclan concert hall.
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Hui reported from London. Contributing to this report were Gregory Katz, Brian Rohan, Paisley Dodds, Lisa Leff and Sophie Berman in London; John Leicester and Lori Hinnant in Paris; Eric Tucker in Washington; and Matt Sedensky in New York.
