Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi called his mum 15 minutes before launching his attack at the Manchester Arena which left 22 people dead, it has been claimed.
A spokesman for the Libyan authorities said Abedi made the call to say ‘forgive me’ to his nuclear scientist mum just days after persuading his parents to give him back his confiscated passport.
He had told them he wanted to make Umrah – a pilgrimage to Mecca – and they were reportedly ‘happy’ to oblige.
Special Deterrent Force spokesman Ahmed bin Salem said that Salman Abedi‘s mother and three of his siblings in Libya were summoned for questioning.
Abedi died in the attack at Manchester Arena where 22 people were killed.
Mr Bin Salem said the mother told interrogators that her son left Libya for England only four days before the bombing and called her on the same day of the attack.
Mr Bin Salem said: “He was giving farewell.”
Salman Abedi
Another sibling, 18-year-old brother Hashim, and Abedi’s father were arrested in Tripoli on Wednesday.
Mr Bin Salem said Libyan investigators think, based on what Hashim Abedi told them, “the bomber acted alone”.
He said the brother told them that Salman learned how to make explosives on the internet and wanted to “seek victory for the Islamic State”.
Jamal Zubia, a leading figure in the Libyan community in Manchester, told The Times: “The father had all the passports and was holding them. But Salman said he wanted to do Umrah and that is why he needed to leave Libya. His mother was happy.”
Abedi’s brother, Hashem, 20, is reported to have confessed during an interrogation on Tuesday and Wednesday he “knew everything his brother was going to do in Manchester”.
Hashem Abedi
Bin Salem said: “He [Salman] also called his mother and brother 15 minutes before the operation started.”
As we now know, the ‘operation’ involved detonating a “highly sophisticated” nail bomb at Manchester Arena .
The atrocious act killed 22 people and injured more than 100. Twenty people remain in critical condition in hospital.
Speaking to BB2’s Newsnight on Wednesday night, a Libyan official said authorities were aware of Abedi going to the Libyan capital of Tripoli on April 18 and believed he stayed for two or three weeks.
He revealed that Abedi’s younger brother Hashem had been investigated for about a month and a half over suspicions that he was linked to IS.
“His brother felt there was something going on there in Manchester and he thought his brother would do something like bombing or attack.
“So after that, he told us, ‘Having internet, I see the attack in Manchester and I knew that’s my brother’,” a spokesman for Libyan authorities told BBC2’s Newsnight.
“We were not quite sure about this, but when we arrested and we asked him, he told us, ‘I have ideology with my brother’. Hashim told us, ‘I know everything about my brother, what he was doing there in Manchester’.”
Ramadan Abedi (pictured) the father of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi
Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi, was arrested in Tripoli along with Hashem.
A 23-year-old man – named in reports as Abedi’s older brother Ismail – was detained in Chorlton, south Manchester, on Tuesday.
Ramadan Abedi had earlier claimed his son Salman was innocent, saying: “We don’t believe in killing innocents. This is not us.”
The developments came as the police investigation was hit by further leaks to the US media, with the New York Times releasing crime scene photos appearing to show bomb fragments and the backpack used to conceal the explosive.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said the leak of the pictures breached trust and “undermines our investigations and the confidence of victims, witnesses and their families”.
Paramedics desperately try to help victims of the Manchester Arena bombing (Photo: London News Pictures Ltd)
Police responding to the explosion at an Ariana Grande concert (Photo: London News Pictures Ltd)
Twenty-two people were killed and dozens seriously injured when Abedi, 22, detonated a device as fans left an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.
The bombing was the deadliest terrorist incident to hit the UK since the July 7 attacks in London in 2005 and sparked a nationwide security operation amid fears further strikes could be imminent.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said: “I think it’s very clear that this is a network that we are investigating and as I’ve said, it continues at pace, this extensive investigation is going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak.”
The force said it was “confident” it had identified every victim but they would not be formally identified until after post-mortem examinations were completed in four to five days.
There were reports that members of the public reported Abedi to the anti-terrorism hotline several years ago.
An unnamed Muslim community worker told the BBC two people who knew the attacker at college tipped off officers after he made statements “supporting terrorism” and expressing the view that “being a suicide bomber was okay”.
The calls are thought to have been made five years ago after Abedi left school, the community worker added.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a fourth meeting of the Government‘s Cobra emergency committee since the Manchester attack, on Thursday morning, Downing Street said.
In response to the heightened threat, the Government has activated Operation Temperer , providing up to 3,800 troops to support the police in security operations.
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Manchester bombing
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said 984 military personnel were being deployed around the country, which the Metropolitan Police said had freed up 1,000 armed officers to carry out patrols.
She confirmed Abedi had recently returned from a visit to Libya, and said the nature of the attack suggested he may have had support.
