Salman Abedi

"Islamic terrorist"  Salman Abedi
File:Salman Abedi.jpg
Born	Salman Ramadan Abedi 31 December 1994 Manchester
Alma mater	Salford University
Allegedly killed himself while carrying out the 2017 Manchester bombing

Salman Abedi was named by Greater Manchester Police as the suicide bomb suspect for the 22 May 2017 Manchester bombing which killed 23 and injured 139. A 22-year-old local man of Libyan ancestry, Salman Abedi was one of a number of British citizens evacuated from a dangerous situation in Tripoli by the British military in August 2014, but continued to make regular visits to his family in Libya.

Abedi’s older brother Ismail Abedi, who had been a tutor at the Didsbury mosque’s Koran school and was one of eight men arrested in connection with the bombing, was released without charge.

His father Ramadan Abedi and younger brother Hashem Abedi were detained in Libya. In August 2017, the BBC reported that Hashem Abedi was to be tried in Libya over his suspected role in the attack, while the father Ramadan Abedi had been released.

In November 2017, the Islamic extremist Abdelhakim Belhadj was accused of delaying Hashem Abedi's extradition from Libya to stand trial in Britain.

"Drugged animals"

Salman Abedi was known to the security services and had just returned from Libya. On 24 May 2017, a school friend told The Times:

"He went to Libya three weeks ago and came back recently, like days ago."

Safia Aoude posted on Facebook:

"One of terrorist leader Abdelhakim Belhadj's mentally challenged freedom warriors blew himself up in the middle of women and children in Manchester. These are the drugged animals UK and NATO stupidly gave political and military support in February 2011. And you didn't see this coming?!?"

Jim Rodden added:

This ties in with my thoughts about how quickly the police identified the bomber, also, how they were quick to make arrests the next day. No wonder Amber Rudd was annoyed with the yanks for letting his name out, they all bloody knew who he was beforehand.

Parents back home in Libya

Salman Abedi's mother, Samia Tabbal, 50, and father, Ramadan Abedi, a security officer, were both born in Tripoli but appear to have emigrated to London in the early 1980s 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 on to Salford University in 2014 where he studied business management before dropping out.

A family friend told The Independent Abedi and his brother, Ismail, remained in the UK when their parents returned to Libya with the rest of the family following Gaddafi’s overthrow, but travelled back and forth to the war-torn country.

LIFG links

A group of Gaddafi dissidents, who were members of the outlawed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), lived within close proximity to Abedi in Whalley Range. 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-Zawahri, 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 and was an expert in bomb-making.

Another member of the Libyan community in Manchester, Salah Aboaoba told Channel 4 News in 2011 that he had been fund raising for LIFG while in the city. Aboaoba had claimed he had raised funds at Didsbury mosque, the same mosque attended by Abedi. The mosque at the time vehemently denied the claim. “This is the first time I’ve heard of the LIFG. I do not know Salah,” a mosque spokesman said at the time.