Manchester attack: Salman Abedi was cricket loving uni drop out

The Manchester suicide bomber was a “regular kid”, a university student and keen cricket fan. What went wrong?

Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi on the cover The Sun. Picture: The Sun.

A young fanatic linked to one of the country’s biggest Islamic State recruiting networks was behind the worst terror attack since the July 7 bombings.

Salman Abedi, 22, who was born in Manchester after his religious parents fled Libya to escape the Gaddafi regime, is believed to have prayed alongside radicals who later travelled to Syria.

He is thought to have been in contact with Raphael Hostey, also from Manchester, who recruited dozens of young Britons to fight for the terror group in Syria before he was killed in a drone strike a year ago.

Abedi grew up on a council estate in Fallowfield in the south of the city with his siblings, including his older brother, Ismail, 23, who was being questioned by counterterrorism detectives last night. Described as a quiet Manchester United fan, Abedi studied a business and management course at Salford University in 2015, but dropped out.

Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi is pictured on the cover of UK paper The Sun. Picture: The Sun

He did not seem to be a man to make much of an impression until the events of Monday night. Armed with a suitcase full of explosives and shrapnel, Abedi walked into the heart of the crowds leaving the arena before detonating the device, police confirmed.

Counterterrorism detectives and security investigators are examining his connections with the network of jihadists in the area connected with Hostey. It is understood that he had recently returned from Libya. He was not one of the 350 returned jihadists specifically on MI5’s radar, but he was known to the security services in some form. The extent of their investigations are unclear.

Aerial view of raids at Salman Abedi's Fallowfield home. Picture: BBC.

Abedi is thought to have been radicalised recently. His former landlord’s nephew, who did not wish to be named, said last night that he “used to be a regular kid, drinking and going out, until a year ago and he dropped off the radar”. He was also a keen cricket fan.

A friend of the Abedi family told The Times that he had been “radicalised by mosques in south Manchester, there are many people who are suspicious about him”. The friend added: “Many Libyan youths started to become radicalised after 2011. His parents were anti-Gaddafi and fled as they are very very religious.”

Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi, a security officer, and mother Samia, are believed to have returned to Tripoli. They had emigrated to London, where they had three sons and a daughter.

Neighbours on the council estate in Fallowfield said that the mother had left the family home in the autumn, leaving Salman and Ismai Abedi, the two eldest boys, living alone. Up to 70 police officers raided the home yesterday after carrying out a controlled explosion to gain entry. At about the same time, Abedi’s brother Ismail, 23, was arrested by plainclothes officers nearby in the Chorlton area.

Frances Kinsey, 48, a support worker, said that a flag, which she thought was Iraqi or Syrian, had been flown from the house last year. Mrs Kinsey said that she had been questioned by police about the regular stream of visitors and guests at the house.

Her husband, Alan, 52, who works for a car auctioneer, said one of the occupants was tall and skinny and mainly wore traditional white Islamic clothes. Other neighbours said that Abedi had grown a beard and loudly recited Islamic prayers weeks before the concert hall atrocity. Lina Ahmed, 21, said that he had chanted loudly in the street.

Sheikh Mohammed Saeed el-Saeiti, at the local Didsbury mosque, said that Abedi attended his mosque less after he delivered a sermon against ISIS in 2015. The imam claimed that Abedi began to pray elsewhere because he was “not happy with my approach because I did combat ISIS on the Friday sermon”.

He said: “He showed me the face of hate, Salman, after my speech on ISIS. He used to show me the face of hate. I could tell this person hates me. You understand, it’s no surprise to me [that he was the attacker].”

Abedi is thought to have lived at a number of addresses in the area that became linked with terrorism after a string of radicals travelled or attempted to travel to join ISIS.

In 2015 Zahra and Salma Halane, dubbed the terror twins, joined the terror group after being recruited by Hostey.

Their brother Ahmed Ibrahim Halane, 21, known as “Pie” because of his size, travelled to the warzone and is now living in Denmark.

His cousin, Abdullahi Ahmed Jama Farah, acted as a communications hub for the group from Manchester that travelled to the region.

Khalil Raoufi established a “Britanni” brigade as part of Isis and gained notoriety on Twitter as Abu Layth before he was killed fighting in Syria.

One member of the group, Mohammed Javeed, 19, known as Prinny, is believed to have died as a suicide bomber in Iraq.

It is also possible that Abedi was inspired by the recent suicide bombing in Iraq by Jamal al-Harith, also from the area.

The Times