British counter-terror agencies missed several chances to stop Salman Abedi before he carried out the Manchester Arena bombing, it has emerged.
Two people who knew the 22-year-old at college called the anti-terror hotline after he told them "being a suicide bomber was okay".The calls are thought to have been made five years ago, after Abedi left school. Two community leaders also reported Abedi over his extremist views. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, told The Daily Telegraph Abedi was reported two years ago "because he thought he was involved in extremism and terrorism".
"People in the community expressed concerns about the way this man was behaving and reported it in the right way using the right channels," Shafiq said. "They did not hear anything since." Abedi was also reported to the authorities after he confronted an Imam who was delivering an anti-extremist sermon at Didsbury Mosque. Akran Ramadan, who is part of the Libyan community in south Manchester, said he understood Abedi had been placed on a "watch list" after the mosque banned him and reported him to the authorities for his extremist views. Officials scouring the background of the British-born bomber said he was likely part of a wider terrorist network.
Several arrests have been made in both Britain and Libya after the bombing, which killed 22 people and wounded 64 more.
Before becoming increasingly religious as his radicalisation deepened, Abedi drank and took drugs. He had shown signs of extremism by flying black flag associated with Islamist groups from his Manchester home.
Salman Abedi spoke to his mother just before the vile attack, according to BBC Newsnight. A Libyan security source told the programme that the terrorist rang his brother in Libya, telling him to ask their mother Samia Tabbal to call him. It was also claimed that Tabbal, 50, graduated from Tripoli University top of her class. A close family friend told the Mail: "I am sure Salman's mother and father are very shocked by what he did.
"It is very sad because their mother is very intelligent. She told my wife that she was a nuclear science engineer and that she got excellent marks in her exams. She graduated top of her class from Tripoli University." US intelligence sources told news outlets in America that his family had informed on the 22-year-old as they feared he had become 'dangerous'.
Born and raised in Manchester in 1994, Abedi, the second youngest of four children, grew up in a Muslim household but matured into a university dropout with an appetite for bloodshed.