Way to slaughter 22 innocents OF BOMBER
Mohamed were led screaming from a semi-detached house in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, after explosives blew down their door.
Neighbours reported a “deafening bang” as cops from 15 unmarked police cars used the explosive to storm the house at 2am.
Residents said they heard that the brothers – who have lived at the property for more than 15 years – screaming as they were led from the house with hoods over their heads.
The Libyan brothers are said to have been close pals with Abdul Wahab Hafidah, whose alleged slaying last year was said to have sparked Abedi’s descent into extremism.
Abedi’s sister, Jomana, 18, has claimed he was left heartbroken by 18-year-old Hafidah’s death.
Abedi’s father Ramadan, 51, took him to Libya to stop him carrying out a revenge attack – only for him to be radicalised by Islamic State fanatics.
Rifle
Social media photographs seen by the Sunday People show close ties between the Werfalli brothers and Hafidah. Mohamed Werfalli paid tribute to Hafidah with a post just over a week before Abedi’s attack.
Social media images also show the Werfallis’ friendship with a number of Libyans. A series of photographs believed to be taken in Libya in 2014 show a friend posing with a machine gun next to a Toyota Landcruiser. Another post featured a Kalashnikov assault rifle alongside a silenced pistol with ammunition next to it.
In another photo a young child is seen holding a rifle in the desert.
As bomb squad experts stormed the Cheetham Hill property, forensic teams fewer than four miles away wearing white suits continued to comb a 12thfloor council flat where Abedi began building his deadly device.
He paid £ 700 to rent the flat in Somerton Court, Blackley.
He is said to have fled there in midApril – leaving a metal rod in the bath, cut- up material lying around and a lingering smell of chemicals – telling the landlord Aiman al-Wafi he needed to travel to Libya urgently.
Meanwhile, the bomb squad also swooped on an address in Moss Side, central Manchester, yesterday as police dramatically surrounding streets while they searched a property – as the force helicopter circled overhead.
The fresh searches came as Theresa May yesterday reduced Britain’s threat level from critical to severe and announced the end of Operation Temperer, which saw armed troops flood the streets of Britain.
Her announcement means an attack is considered highly likely rather than imminent. Troops will be gradually withdrawn from the streets from midnight on Monday.
But Chief Constable Ian Hopkins insisted the change in national threat level would not mean a scaling back of his force’s probe.
The Great Manchester Run will go ahead today following the Great City Games on Friday evening.