UK reviews handling of intelligence on bomber

Salman Abedi was not under active investigation by MI5

LONDON: Britain’s MI5 has begun an internal review of how it handled intelligence on Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who was known to the authorities but not under active investigation, a source told Reuters on Monday.

Interior minister Amber Rudd said the review was the “right first step” for the intelligence agency to take in the wake of the May 22 bombing that killed 22 people at a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

MI5 is subject to scrutiny by a committee of parliament, and it is highly unusual for British authorities to make public that the security service is conducting its own internal investigation into possible lapses.

“The review will look at what was known about Abedi, what decisions were made about the intelligence and what, if anything, could have been done differently,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“This is a review that would seek to answer whether there are lessons to be learned from how the Security Service handled the intelligence on Abedi.”

The source told Reuters that Abedi was not among the 3,000 people currently under active investigation by MI5, although he was one of around 20,000 people known to the agency, whose focus is on countering terrorism and espionage.

The BBC said MI5 was alerted at least three times to the ”extremist views” of Abedi, a 22-year-old who grew up in Manchester. It was not possible to confirm that report.

“This is an ongoing investigation so I’m not going to be drawn into comments on the actual man who committed this crime,” Rudd told BBC television.

PAK-ORIGIN DOCTOR WHO TREATED VICTIMS RACIALLY ABUSED

A Pakistani-origin doctor, who spent 48 hours saving the lives of the victims of the terror attack, was racially abused and called a terrorist and told to “go back to your country”, media reports said.

Naveed Yasin, a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, was on his way back to Salford Royal Hospital to continue to help the victims when a middle-aged man pulled up beside him and hurled abuse at him. “I can’t take away the hatred he had for me because of my skin colour...and the prejudices he had associated with this,” Yasin said.

The 37-year-old was born and brought up in West Yorkshire. His great-grandfather moved to Yorkshire from Pakistan in the 1960s.

“Terror attacks don’t discriminate against race or religion but this [the racial abuse] didn’t discriminate either,” he said.

AP Members of the British Muslim Forum and Christian and Jewish religious leaders pay their respects to the victims of last week’s Manchester Arena blast at the city’s St Ann's Square.