From the Guardian
The man who murdered 22 people and injured 59 others has been named as Salman Ramadan Abedi, a Mancunian of Libyan descent.
Police confirmed the 22-year-old’s identity after officials in the United States passed it to news reporters, apparently against the wishes of the police and security services in the UK.
Officers also searched the home of his brother Ismael in the Chorlton area of south Manchester. They arrested a 23-year-old man near an address where the family had previously lived, prompting speculation that Ismael Abedi had been detained.
Salman Abedi is thought to have been known to both the police and the security services. A few hours after the attack, Islamic State claimed it had been carried out by “a caliphate soldier”.
Even before Abedi was named, several members of south Manchester’s Libyan community wondered whether the suicide bomber would turn out to be one of their own: perhaps one of the young men who had fought in Libya during the 2011 revolution, some of whom came home traumatised, angry and unsettled.
Advertisement
And as one would expect – (But) none appear to have suspected that Abedi – a slightly withdrawn, devout young man, always respectful to his elders – would become a mass murderer.
“Salman? I’m astonished by this,” one member of Manchester’s Libyan community told the Guardian. “He was such a quiet boy, always very respectful towards me. His brother Ismael is outgoing, but Salman was very quiet. He is such an unlikely person to have done this.”
The brothers worshipped at Didsbury mosque, where their father, who is known as Abu Ismael within the community, is a well-known figure. “He used to do the five and call the adhan. He has an absolutely beautiful voice. And his boys learned the Qur’an by heart. Abu Ismael will be terribly distraught. . . “
Abu Ismael Abedi, who worked as an odd-job man in Manchester, is thought to be in Tripoli. His wife, Samia, is thought to be in Manchester. “He comes and goes between here and there,” the family friend said. “I can’t believe he would have been radicalised in Tripoli. All those types have been driven out of the city. It must have happened here.”
Farazana Kosur said she and her children had lived on Thelwall Ave, around the corner from the house that was raided on Elesmore Rd, for four years. She knew the family in the house, she said, though not very well.
The family had sons in their 20s, and a younger son and daughter, and the older sons would wear religious dress and attend a mosque. The mother was a “very nice woman” and taught Kosur’s friend’s daughter to read the Qur’an. “It’s terrible,” she said. “I hate the bombing and everybody is scared. It’s a nice area. We’ve had no problems.”
- Like
- Digg
- Del
- Tumblr
- VKontakte
- Buffer
- Love This
- Odnoklassniki
- Meneame
- Blogger
- Amazon
- Yahoo Mail
- Gmail
- AOL
- Newsvine
- HackerNews
- Evernote
- MySpace
- Mail.ru
- Viadeo
- Line
- Comments
- Yummly
- SMS
- Viber
- Telegram
- Subscribe
- Skype
- Facebook Messenger
- Kakao
- LiveJournal
- Yammer
- Edgar
- Fintel
- Mix
- Instapaper
- Copy Link
One Response
Yeah, quiet, yeah, religious, yeah, loves his muvver and his pappa.. went to mosque, family wore religious dress… and he goes off to the stadium and blows himself up in the middle of a crowd of infidel kids…setting out to 'slay and be slain".
Totally predictable.
If I were the Manchester police and counter-terrorism people, every house belonging to every person in his extended family would have been raided and searched by army sappers with sniffer dogs – the kind that detect bodies, and illegal drugs, and explosives – and that Didsbury mosque the family so piously attended would also have been surprise-raided and searched, from attic to basement… along with all associated residences, premises, businesses and vehicles.