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Salman Abedi caught on CCTV travelling to the Manchester Arena. GMP

Suicide bomber who killed 22 in Manchester Arena was rescued by British navy in Libya

British bomber Salman Abedi had been visiting Libya during a year off before university.

THE SUICIDE BOMBER who killed 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester was rescued by the British navy from conflict-ridden Libya three years earlier, it was reported today.

Salman Abedi, a British man of Libyan heritage, was among 110 Britons and their families evacuated by the ship HMS Enterprise and taken to Malta in August 2014, the Daily Mail newspaper said.

In May 2017, the then 22-year-old blew himself up outside Manchester Arena in northwest England at the end of a concert by Ariana Grande. Seven children were among the dead.

“For this man to have committed such an atrocity on UK soil after we rescued him from Libya was an act of utter betrayal,” a government source told the paper.

His brother Hashem Abedi, who is currently being held in Libya under investigation over the Manchester attack, was also reportedly evacuated.

An official review published last December revealed that Salman Abedi was under active investigation by British intelligence agency MI5 between January and July 2014, but it was a case of mistaken identity.

It found however that MI5 had come across intelligence in the months before the attack which, “had its true significance been properly understood”, would have caused a new investigation to be opened.

The Mail reported that Abedi had taken a year off before university and was visiting Libya on holiday at the time of the evacuation.

The Wall Street Journal last year cited a family friend saying that Abedi had travelled to Libya with his father in 2011 to join the Tripoli Brigade militia as it battled the regime of dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

A government spokesman said: “During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British Nationals and their dependents.”

He added: “The Anderson review into the Manchester attack concluded that the investigative actions taken in relation to Salman Abedi in 2014, and the subsequent decision to close him as a subject of interest, were sound on the basis of the information available at the time.”

Abedi was born in Manchester in 1994, to parents who had been granted asylum after fleeing Kadhafi’s regime.

He was in Libya just days before the attack.

© – AFP 2018

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    Mute Jimmy Dunphy
    Favourite Jimmy Dunphy
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    Mar 30th 2012, 8:54 AM

    Is Michael Healy-Ray really that stupid ,,,,, Looks like the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree !!!!!

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    Mute Maureen Hession
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    Mar 30th 2012, 12:01 PM

    yes they are , and the very ones, that has there bread buttered by him , i heard , that these guys run, co, Kerry ,if your not with, them your out, and stay out ?. local Mafioso, i here say .big fish in small ponds .

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    Mute Dave O'Shea
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    Mar 30th 2012, 8:55 AM

    How on earth did that amadan Healy Rae get elected , are people in constituency really that thick????

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    Mute Cian Devane
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    Mar 30th 2012, 9:06 AM

    maybe we could put the dog into the dail instead of micheal.

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    Mute Paul Ringrose
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    Mar 30th 2012, 9:29 AM

    As a farmer said to me ‘why should I indicate ,sure everybody knows where I’m going .’ The rural attitude to visitors/tourists is that they should deposit their money at the county boundary and not annoy the natives with demands for service, unspoilt countryside etc. It takes a Healy-Rae to actually come out and say this ; tell us more Michael.

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    Mute Alan Aston
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    Mar 30th 2012, 10:14 AM

    Michael Healy Rae your ignorance knows absolutely no bounds!!

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    Mute Tim Booth
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    Mar 30th 2012, 9:28 AM

    Michael Healy Rae is supported by the plain people of Kerry – crap goes in, crap comes out.

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    Mute sarah
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    Mar 30th 2012, 9:28 AM

    It’s bloody obvious Micheal Healy Rae is a man that can smell money a mile away. He must be doing a reality tv show soon and needs the cash for the phone and text votes. This is the Td who cut the grass of developers houses in my estate only last summer after he was elected. He even had his ‘vote no1′ stickers still on his van with his picture so there was no denying it was him. My ghost estate is in north cork so he drove a bit from Kerry to help the developer who is living it up in the uk!

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    Mute Eimear Walshe
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    Mar 30th 2012, 10:42 AM

    I live in the country, and I know my way around. I have to say, country driving, particularly people over a certain age and in a certain profession, is shocking bad. No indicating, lucky if there’s one working brake light on the car. If a trailer is being towed, good luck. Then you can actually see the driver looking everywhere but the road. I usually have a rant about this a few times a week, when I’m stuck behind some numpty who doesn’t indicate, no brake light on the trailer, thinks road signs are just decorations for the roadside. And that Healy-Rae lad is a bigger numpty for questioning the need for road signs.

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    Mute Kevin Miller
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    Mar 30th 2012, 10:32 AM

    It says much for his chosen career that he is able to function as a member of the Dail, most of the political class see their job as being ” gettin in then gettin as much as they can ” this applies to most countries so we shouldn’t feel superior, but we do have a very good class of gobshites.

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    Mute Rob Queen
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    Mar 30th 2012, 12:01 PM

    In a lot of rural areas, the local yooves tend to take great delight in turning the signs. And a turned sign is defintely worse than no sign at all! Many’s the time I’ve headed off in the wrong direction thanks to a bit of late-night shenanigans.

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    Mute Gerry Kelly
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    Mar 30th 2012, 12:27 PM

    No money in signs as they are put in by the NRA also the bank hopes to “return to sustainable profitability by 2014.” by robbing the less well off..

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