South side of city a breeding ground for jihad

Martin Evans, Hayley Dixon

Edward Malnick

SUICIDE bomber Salman Abedi grew up in south Manchester, which has been home to a string of extremists and terrorists in recent years, many with strong Libyan connections.

Security services were last night urgently investigating if Abedi, 22, whose parents came to the UK from Tripoli in the early 1990s, had links to Libyan terrorist Abdalraouf Abdallah and his brother Mohammed.

Abdalraouf, 23, was jailed last year after being convicted of trying to help other Manchester-based jihadis to join Isil. Among those he helped try to get to Syria was former RAF veteran and Muslim convert Stephen Gray, who also grew up in the Moss Side area.

Abdalraouf, who, like Abedi, was the son of Libyan dissidents, travelled to Libya in 2010 on a gap year. He joined an Islamist group known as the 17 February Martyr’s Brigade and during an anti-gaddafi rally was shot and paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

When he returned home, he began encouraging friends and associates to join Isil. He was also known to have extremist connections in Belgium, home to Mohamed Abrini, the “Man in the Hat” linked to the Brussels and Paris attacks. Abrini visited Manchester in 2015 and took photographs of Old Trafford football stadium.

Abdalrouf also raised cash and tried to arrange firearms for his brother Mohammed and fellow Mancunian Raymond Matimba.

The security services were also understood to be exploring Abedi’s links with Raphael Hostey, who recruited dozens of young Britons to fight for Isil. Hostey grew up in Moss Side, a mile from Abedi’s home.

Earlier this year another Manchester-born jihadist, Ronald Fiddler, aka Jamal al-harith, blew himself up in a suicide attack in Mosul. He had been detained in Guantánamo Bay, but joined Isil after being released with a large compensation payout.

In 2014, chemistry teacher Jamshed Javeed, who lived just a short distance from the Abedi family, was jailed for trying to join Isil.

While the area was once plagued with gang violence, community leaders have reported youngsters increasingly being drawn into extremism.

In total, at least 16 jihadists hail from a three-mile radius around Abedi’s home district of Fallowfield.

In terms of the number of terrorists, Manchester is third only to London and Birmingham.