Late on the night of 22 May 2017, an explosion rocked England’s Manchester Arena after a performance by the American pop star Ariana Grande. At least 22 people were dead, including children, and nearly 60 people were injured.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack, saying that “explosive devices were detonated in the shameless concert arena resulting in 30 Crusaders being killed and 70 other being wounded.” The declaration did not identify the “soldier”who carried out the bombing.
Police said they believe an “improvised explosive device” was set off by 22-year-old Salman Ramadan Abedi, who died at the scene.
Abedi, the second youngest of four children was born and raised in Manchester in 1994 and grew up in a Muslim household.
His parents, mother Samia Tabbal and father Ramadan Abedi, a security officer, are Libyan-born refugees who fled to the UK to escape Qaddafi. It is thought they returned in 2011 following Qaddafi's overthrow.
Abedi is thought to have an older brother Ismail Abedi, who was born in Westminster in 1993, a younger brother Hashim Abedi, and a sister Jomana, whose Facebook profile suggests she is from Tripoli and lives in Manchester.
Abedi is believed to have attended the Manchester Islamic Centre, also known as the Didsbury Mosque.
Abedi went to Burnage Academy for Boys between 2009 and 2011, and then on to Salford University in 2014 where he studied business management before dropping out
He was registered as living at the Abedi family home Elsmore Road, south Manchester. A large Libya flag hung out his window.
Neighbours recalled an abrasive, tall, skinny young man who was little known in the neighbourhood, and often seen in traditional Islamic clothing.
A couple of months ago Salman was seen chanting the Islamic prayer really loudly in the street.
He said, ‘There is only one God and the prophet Mohammed is his messenger’.
All of a sudden he had travelled to Libya and then most likely to Syria, became radicalised and decided to commit this attack.
Abedi's trips to Libya are now subject to scrutiny including links to jihadists.
A group of Gaddafi dissidents, who were members of the outlawed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, lived within close proximity to Abedi in Whalley Range.
Among them was Abd al-Baset Azzouz, who left Britain to run a terrorist network in Libya overseen by Ayman al-Zawahiri who was Osama bin Laden’s successor as leader of al-Qaeda.
Azzouz, 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.
Speaking for the first time about his son's death, Abedi's father said: "We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us."
Abedi was known to British intelligence, but was seen as being on the edges of the extremist movement, rather than a central player.
So viewers, be aware about who’s around you because a sleeper cell is just a common man.
May the souls of dead, rest in peace.
