The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump condemned “leaks of sensitive information” and promised an investigation after Britain complained about disclosures of details related to Monday’s terror attack in Manchester,
Suspect made final phone call before concert attack.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND — The suspect in the deadly Manchester concert bombing was driven by what he saw as unjust treatment of Arabs in Britain, a relative said Thursday, confirming he had made a final phone call in which he pleaded: “Forgive me.”
Salman Abedi was particularly upset by the killing last year of a Muslim friend whose death he believed went unnoticed by “infidels” in the U.K., said the relative, speaking on condition of anonymity over concerns for her own security.
“Why was there no outrage for the killing of an Arab and a Muslim in such a cruel way?” she said by phone from Libya, adding “Rage was the main reason,” for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday.
The new insight into Abedi’s motivation came as Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids and the investigation extended across Europe into Libya, where most of the suspected bomber’s family lived.
The number of arrests in the U.K. ticked up to eight as British Transport Police said armed officers would begin patrols on some trains because of an increased threat of terrorism.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said, without elaborating, that searches of suspects’ homes produced “very important” clues in the probe of the bombing. But leaks from the investigation were creating a trans-Atlantic diplomatic mess.
Manchester police halted their sharing of investigative information with the U.S. through most of Thursday until receiving fresh assurance there would be an end to leaks to the media.
British officials were particularly angry over photos published by the New York Times showing remnants of a blue backpack which might have held the explosive. But it wasn’t clear U.S. officials were the source of the images, which the Times defended as “neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims” and consistent with basic reporting “on weapons used in horrific crimes.”
British security services were also upset that 22-yearold Abedi’s name was apparently leaked by U.S. officials while police in the U.K. continued withholding it and as raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya. Hopkins said the leaks “caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss.”
Meanwhile, the investigation into the blast widened.
Authorities chased possible links between Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East. They were exploring potential ties to Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan jailed in the U.K. for terror offenses, and to Raphael Hostey, an Islamic State recruiter killed in Syria.
Abedi’s family remained a focus, too, with a brother in England, his father and another brother in Libya among those detained.
Abedi’s father was allegedly a member of the al-Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s — a claim he denies.
An emerging portrait of the bomber remained complicated by competing assessments of whether Abedi held views that had sparked concern before the bombing.
Akram Ramadan, a member of the Libyan community in Manchester who attends the city’s Didsbury Mosque, said Abedi was banned from the mosque after he allegedly interrupted an imam’s anti-Islamic State sermon.
“He stood up and started calling the imam — ‘You are talking bollocks,’” Ramadan said. “And he gave a good stare, a threatening stare into the imam’s eyes.”
Mohammed Fadl, a community leader, rejected that account. While Abedi’s family was well-known in Manchester, Abedi himself did not attend many gatherings, Fadl said.
However, Fadl said he had heard Abedi’s father took his son’s passport away over concerns about his ties to alleged extremists and criminals.
“Very few people in the community here were close to him, and therefore Salman’s fanaticism wasn’t something the community was aware of,” he said.
Ahmed bin Salem, a spokesman for the Special Deterrent Force in Libya, said Abedi placed his final call to both his mother and a brother. Abedi’s relative said he had spoken with his brother only, asking that his message be relayed to his mother.
“He was giving farewell,” bin Salem said.
Abedi’s relative said the suspected bomber was pained by the killing of Abdel-Wahab Hafidah, an 18-year-old who news reports say was chased by a group of men, run over and stabbed in the neck in Manchester in May 2016.
“They wouldn’t let you share bread with them,” she said Abedi told her. “They are unjust to the Arabs.”
Bin Salem said Abedi’s mother told investigators her son left for the U.K. four days before the attack after spending a month in Libya.