SICKENING ACT OF BETRAYAL
Manchester bomber was rescued by Royal Navy from Libyan warzone and evacuated back to UK. Three years later he slaughtered 22 at pop concert
THE Manchester suicide bomber was rescued by the Navy from war-torn Libya three years before his pop concert atrocity, the Mail reveals today. HMS Enterprise plucked Salman Abedi, then 19, from the Libyan
coast and took him to Malta for a flight to Britain in August 2014.
Last May he set off a bomb in Manchester Arena that killed 22, including seven children. His younger brother, Hashem, who is in jail in Tripoli facing trial over the attack, was also rescued by HMS Enterprise. They had been caught up in fighting in Libya and were among more than 100 British citizens taken to safety. Photographs released by the Ministry of Defence at the time showed the group being brought aboard the Navy vessel.
A Whitehall source said: ‘For this man to have committed such an atrocity on UK soil after we rescued him from Libya was an act of utter betrayal.’ The revelation will enrage families who lost loved-ones in Abedi’s despicable attack.
It is also likely to raise fresh fears over possible intelligence failures.
Abedi was known to the security services and was being monitored at the time of his trip to Libya. However, just one month prior to his rescue, MI5 closed his case as a result of mistaken
identity. The presence of the Abedi brothers among the 110 evacuees from Libya in 2014 was confirmed by family friends in Libya. One said: ‘They were sent together by the Royal Navy to Malta.’
Sources in London also confirmed Salman was on HMS Enterprise.
After being dropped off in Malta, Salman and his 21-yearold brother – the British-born sons of Libyan migrants – flew back to Manchester where they were living at the time.
Salman, who was on a gap year from Manchester College, went on to study business management at Salford University, before dropping out and descending into a fanatical spiral that culminated in last year’s suicide bombing at the age of 22.
The Abedi brothers shuttled
‘A spiral of fanaticism’
back and forth between Manchester and Tripoli because their parents – Ramadan and Samia – had returned to Libya.
Ramadan is thought to have gone back in time for the 2011 revolution, allegedly fighting against the Gaddafi regime with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
It is not certain whether the two brothers were with their father at the time of the revolution or instead in neighbouring Tunisia. But they were on holiday in Libya in August 2014 when fighting in the civil war intensified and British officials offered to evacuate UK citizens.
The Royal Navy was tasked with picking them up, along with other British nationals, on a list provided to sailors.
By that time, the Foreign Office had already changed its official travel advice to warn Britons in Libya to ‘ leave immediately by commercial means’ because of the fighting around Tripoli and the wider instability nationwide.
The advice said those unable to leave independently could seek ‘assisted departure’.
Senior security sources stressed they did not believe Abedi had been radicalised at the time of the Royal Navy rescue. He later became brainwashed after watching bombmaking videos on Googleowned YouTube and terror material on other internet sites, they believe.
A senior source told the Mail: ‘He was a British citizen so it was our job to safeguard him. Salman was one of many people in that mix and we absolutely had to evacuate him.
‘He was not a threat at the time and it was in a very different context.’
Other sources have claimed Abedi was on the front line and was hospitalised fighting alongside jihadis in Ajdabiya, eastern Libya.
However, a family friend was adamant that Abedi was there for innocent purposes. The friend said: ‘ Salman and Hashem were not involved in fighting at all and they had spent a lot of time with their mother in Tunisia.’
At the time of the rescue, there were increasingly brutal battles between various militia groups fighting for control of Tripoli’s airport and dozens were killed.
As a result the Foreign Office announced it was temporarily closing its embassy and other consular operations in Libya.
Amid fierce fighting, UK citizens were taken in small boats from the port of Tripoli to HMS Enterprise, a survey ship on a routine deployment in the Mediterranean. They were joined by two Irish citizens and a German.
It is not known if the flights home to the UK were paid for by the British government.
A security source downplayed claims that Abedi was involved in fighting and said he could have just been visiting his family.
‘When they leave the UK it becomes a lot more challenging to keep track of them, especially when they have family links in other countries,’ said the insider.
‘But his visits were not necessarily for nefarious purposes. He did things largely alone. The internet played a large role when it came to his terror training.’
A report into the handling of the Manchester bombing by David Anderson QC revealed that Abedi was first actively investigated in January 2014 – seven months before the rescue.
Published in December last year, the report said he was investigated because it was ‘thought that he might have been an individual who had been seen acting suspiciously with a subject of interest’ to counter-terrorism police.
Abedi did know the suspect but turned out not to have been the individual seen with him and his record was closed in July 2014. He was classed as a low residual risk.
He came to the attention of the authorities again in October 2015 because of his supposed contact with an Islamic State figure in Libya.
The report found that this allegation was wrong and his file was closed once more.
Abedi attended Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester between 2009 and 2011 before going to Manches- ter College until 2013. Two people who knew him from his college days claim they called an anti-terrorism hotline to warn police about his extremist views.
A community support worker, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC they had informed the authorities after Abedi publicly said ‘he was supporting terrorism’ and that ‘ being a suicide bomber is OK’.
Greater Manchester Police found no record of the phone calls, however.
The Anderson review concluded that the investigative actions taken in relation to Abedi, and the subsequent decision to shut his file, were sound on the basis of the information available then.
At the time of the rescue in 2014, the MoD released a statement from HMS Enterprise’s commanding officer, Commander Mark Varta, saying: ‘This is a period of uncertainty for UK citizens based in Libya but we have been proud to play our part in enabling their move to safety.’
The then defence secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, said: ‘I thank the crew of HMS Enterprise for their support and professionalism in carrying out this important task.’
The 90m survey ship, normally based in Plymouth, had been eight weeks into an 18month mission carrying out surveys in the area.
Last night, a Government spokesman said: ‘During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British nationals and their dependants.’
‘Hospitalised fighting’ ‘Classed as a low risk’
Salman abedi had every reason to love this country.
Born in manchester to libyan parents given sanctuary here after fleeing persecution in their homeland, he had a good home and a good education, eventually studying at Salford University.
and when he himself travelled to libya in 2014 after the fall of Gaddafi, his life was saved by the Royal navy, who rescued him after he became caught up in fighting around Tripoli. He was evacuated to malta, then flown home to resume his studies.
Three years later he showed his gratitude by blowing himself up at the manchester arena, killing more than 20 people, mainly women and children. He was just 22.
This story of tragedy and betrayal raises many deeply disturbing questions. How could a young man who had been given so much, learn to hate this country so fiercely that he was prepared to kill both himself and so many innocents in such a nihilistic attack?
The security services knew he’d been to libya, possibly fighting with Islamist groups, so why didn’t they keep track of him after his return?
and why are we just finding out these vital details about abedi’s background now? If we are to learn lessons from manchester and have a proper national debate on how to prevent a repeat, we must be given all the facts.
But perhaps the most important question is this: What screening procedures are in place to ensure that people we rescue from the mediterranean and allow back here are not jihadis who want to do us harm?
abedi was a terrorist who slipped through the net. How many more may be on their way, or already here? and are we doing everything possible to root them out?