Salman Abedi perpetrated the worst outrage Britain has seen in a
decade just days after returning from Libya, according to reports.
Today Home Secretary Amber Rudd said he was known to intelligence services ‘up to a point’.
The 22-year-old’s visit to his family’s native country fuelled
concerns he was preparing for Monday’s deadly assault under the guidance
of hardened jihadists.
The Times reported the Manchester-born bomber spent three weeks in
the war-torn north African nation before the attack on Manchester Arena,
in which he was killed.
A friend told the paper: ‘He went to Libya three weeks ago and came back recently, like days ago.’
While French interior minister Gerard Collomb has said Manchester
bomber Salman Abedi is believed to have travelled to Syria and had
‘proven’ links with the Islamic State terror group.
Both Islamic State (IS), who claimed responsibility for the atrocity,
and al Qaida have a presence in Libya, but the possibility remains that
Abedi travelled to their heartland in Syria for training.
Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday night it was possible he
had planned his deadly attack with a ‘wider group of individuals’.
Born and raised in Manchester, Abedi grew up in a Muslim household –
but matured into a university dropout with an appetite for bloodshed.
He was registered as living at Elsmore Road as recently as last year,
where police raided a downstairs red-bricked semi-detached property on
Tuesday.
Neighbours recalled an abrasive, tall, skinny young man who was
little known in the neighbourhood, and often seen in traditional Islamic
clothing.
He is thought to have lived at a number of addresses in the area,
including one in Wilbraham Road, where plainclothes police made an
arrest on Tuesday.
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