Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. (Getty)
The parents of Salman Abedi, the Manchester suicide bomber, are Libyan immigrants who came to England at least a decade ago.
Abedi, whose name is sometimes given as Salmon Abedi or Salmon Ramadan Abedi, died at the scene of the attack outside an Ariana Grande concert.
The blast killed 22 people, including children, and it wounded 59. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, although whether the terrorist group was really behind it is not yet clear.
Details are starting to trickle out about Abedi’s family. There were reports the family had warned security officials about Salman:
A US intel official tells @nbcnews members of bomber’s family warned sec officials about him in past, that he was “dangerous.”
However, two of Salman Abedi’s brothers and his father have now been detained.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Abedi’s Parents Were Born in Libya & Were Immigrants to England Who Wanted to Escape Muammar Gaddafi’s Regime
Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena on May 23 in Manchester, England. (Getty)
Abedi was born to Libyan parents who emigrated to Great Britain, although his father reportedly goes back and forth to Tripoli. In an interview from Tripoli, the father, sometimes called Ramadan Abedi, told the AP, “We don’t believe in killing innocents. This is not us.” He added that “Salman was planning to head from Saudi Arabia to Libya to spend the holy month of Ramadan with family,” reports The Manchester Evening News.
According to the UK Telegraph, “his parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime.” After ruling Libya with a despotic fist, Gaddafi was captured and killed in 2011.
The parents “were both born in Libya but appear to have emigrated to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they have lived for at least ten years,” reports the Telegraph.
The Guardian called Salman Abedi “a Mancunian of Libyan descent.” A Mancunian is a term meaning a person who was born in Manchester, England.
Some reports say the parents have gone back to Libya since Gaddafi’s fall. Bloomberg reported that the father, sometimes known as Ramadan Abedi, was detained in Tripoli on May 24 by unknown security forces.
You can read more about Abedi here:
2. Abedi’s Father, Abu Ismael Abedi (Ramadan Abedi), Was Well-Liked at the Local Mosque & His Sons Memorized the Koran
Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. (Getty)
Abedi’s father, Abu Ismael Abedi (his name is sometimes given as Ramadan Abedi), was well-known at the Manchester mosque, according to British news reports.
According to the UK Independent, “the family as being devout and well-known to be against Isis and Islamism. Abedi’s father, known as Abu Ismael, was described in glowing terms at the Didsbury Mosque where he and the family worshipped.” He claimed his son was innocent, the newspaper reported.
Of the father, the Independent quoted a friend as saying, “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.”
The friend said, according to The Independent, “Abu Ismael will be terribly distraught. He was always very confrontational with jihadi ideology, and this Isis thing isn’t even jihad, it’s criminality. The family will be devastated.”
The mosque is in a converted church:
Didsbury mosque, where Manchester terrorist Salman Abedi worked in 2013, is a converted church.
Abedi is from a family of four siblings, according to The Telegraph, which reports that he is the second eldest in the family.
There is no indication that Abedi, who was only 22-years-old, had a wife or had been married, although details were still coming in about the terrorist’s family background.
According to the Irish Times, Abu Ismael Abedi, the father, “worked as an odd-job man in Manchester” and “is thought to be in Tripoli. His wife, Samia, is thought to be in Manchester.”
“He comes and goes between here and there,” a family friend told The Irish Times. “I can’t believe he (Salman) would have been radicalised in Tripoli. All those types have been driven out of the city. It must have happened here.”
3. Authorities Searched the Home of Abedi’s Brother, Ismail & Arrested Him & Another Brother
Concert goers wait to be picked up at the scene of a suspected terrorist attack. (Getty)
Two of Abedi’s brothers have also fallen under suspicion.
The Guardian reports that officers “also searched the home of his brother Ismael in the Chorlton area of south Manchester.” His name is alternatively given as Ismail.
Authorities arrested a 23-year-old man “near an address where the family had previously lived, prompting speculation that Ismael Abedi had been detained,” reports the Guardian.
That man was identified by American news networks as Ismail Abedi, but it’s not clear why he was arrested or whether authorities suspect him of any complicity in the attack.
Meanwhile, authorities in Libya have detained Hashem Abedi, 20, another brother, for alleged ties to ISIS.
The investigation was in its early stages.
According to The Sun, “At least two other addresses linked to Abedi were also raided with more arrests expected in the next 24 hours.”
Authorities conducted a “controlled demolition” at one location, reports USA Today.
According to The Independent, authorities “blew open a door to access his (Abedi’s) home in Elsmore Road, Fallowfield, and carried out a separate raid in Whalley Range” the day after the May 22 attack.
4. The Suicide Bomber Was a British National Born in England & Authorities Are Trying to See if He Was Part of a Terrorist Cell
A mourner at a makeshift memorial after the attack. (Getty)
As has been seen in other cases of terrorist attacks, Abedi was not a refugee or immigrant himself. Rather he was born in England to immigrant parents.
The Sun reports that Abedi was born in Great Britain in 1994. According to the news site, “The focus will now be on his friends, family and other ties to see if there was a sprawling terrorist network behind him.”
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack and called Abedi a “soldier” of the terrorist state. However, it’s not clear whether the Islamic State was really behind the blast.
According to USA Today, Abedi was known to authorities before the blast, which occurred with an improvised explosive device as a throng of concert-goers were exiting the area at the end of the sold-out Ariana Grande concert.
5. Victims of the Attack Include an 8-Year-Old Girl & Ariana Grande ‘Super Fan’
Saffie Rose Roussos. (Twitter)
Names are coming out of the victims in the attack, and the stories are heartbreaking.
They include 8-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos, who was remembered for her “creative flair” and Georgina Callandar, the first victim named in the attack. Callandar was a teenage college student who was a super fan of Ariana Grande and had even tweeted her excitement at the singer before the concert.
John Atkinson, the third victim named, was remembered as a “beautiful soul.”
