Radicalised bomber had gone to Libya

Intelligence services probe links with al-qaeda and Isil as local imam says Abedi showed ‘the face of hate’

THE Manchester Arena suicide bomber had made trips to Libya, Downing Street said last night, as intelligence agents combed his links with al-qaeda and Isil in his parents’ homeland.

Salman Abedi, 22, was born in Manchester and grew up in a tight-knit Libyan community that was known for its strong opposition to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

Abedi, who was reportedly known to the security services, may have returned from his latest trip to Libya as recently as this week.

A school friend told The Times: “He went to Libya three weeks ago and came back recently, like days ago.”

He became radicalised recently and had worshipped at a local mosque that has, in the past, been accused of fundraising for jihadists.

Its imam last night said Abedi, who wore Islamic dress, had shown him “the face of hate” when he gave a speech warning of the dangers of Isil (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).

He was born in 1994, the second youngest of four children. His parents had fled to the UK to escape Gaddafi. His mother, Samia Tabbal, 50, and father, Ramadan Abedi, a security officer, were both born in Tripoli but appear to have emigrated to London before moving to the Whalley Range area of south Manchester, where they had lived for at least a decade.

Abedi went to school locally and then to Salford University in 2014, where he studied business management before dropping out. His trips to Libya, where it is thought his parents returned in 2011 after Gaddafi’s overthrow, are now subject to scrutiny.

A group of Gaddafi dissidents, who were members of the outlawed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), lived near the Abedi family. Among them was Abd al-baset Azzouz, a father of four from Manchester, who left Britain to run a terrorist network in Libya overseen by Ayman al-zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor as leader of al-qaeda.

Azzouz, 48, an expert bomb-maker, was accused of running an al-qaeda network in eastern Libya. The Telegraph reported in 2014 that Azzouz had 200 to 300 militants under his control.

Another member of the Libyan community in Manchester, Salah Aboaoba, told Channel 4 News in 2011 that he had raised money for LIFG. Aboaoba also claimed he raised funds at Didsbury mosque, the one attended by Abedi. The mosque vehemently denied this.

Mohammed Saeed El-saeiti, the imam at Didsbury mosque, yesterday described Abedi as a dangerous extremist. “Salman showed me the face of hate after my speech on Isis [Isil],” he said. “He used to show me the face of hate and I could tell this person does not like me. It’s not a surprise to me.”

Abedi visited the mosque to pray, but the imam insisted “he was not my friend, he is not close. I could understand that he was not happy with me because I did combat Isis in that Friday sermon sometimes”.

At the Abedi family home in Elsmore Road, a nondescript red-brick terrace, neighbours said Abedi had become increasingly devout and withdrawn.

Lina Ahmed, 21, said: “They are a Libyan family and they have been acting strangely. A couple of months ago he [Salman] was chanting the first kalma [Islamic prayer] really loudly in the street. He was chanting in Arabic.

“He was saying ‘There is only one God and the prophet Mohammed is his messenger’.”

A family friend, who described the Abedis as “very religious”, said most of the family returned to Libya, leaving Salman and his older brother Ismail.

“They have not been there for quite a while. Different people come and go,” said Alan Kinsey, 52, a car-delivery driver who lives across the street.

Neighbours woke up to the reality that the quiet young man next door had blown himself up, murdering at least 22 innocent victims.

Police and special forces blasted down the door of the family home at 11.30am. According to locals, two helicopters and at least 30 police officers arrived for the raid.

“The police were very heavily armed. All of them. It was like something out of a war scene,” said Mr Kinsey. “It was terrifying. About 30 of them arrived in camouflage and riot gear and removed the wooden fence between two properties.

“Then they attached a black strip to the door and there was a loud explosion. The door came off its hinges. The windows were shaking. The whole operation lasted about 90 seconds.

“I didn’t see them leading anyone out of the house. I believe it was empty.”