Manchester bomb: Security services 'repeatedly missed opportunities to stop killer Salman Abedi'

Salman Abedi has been identified as the man behind the suicide bombing in Manchester
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Security services were told repeatedly about the threat posed by the Manchester suicide bomber but failed to act, according to reports.

Terrorist Salman Abedi’s friends called the Government’s anti-terrorism hotline after he told them that “being a suicide bomber was okay”, the Telegraph reported.

Abedi killed 22 people and left dozens seriously injured after detonating an improvised explosive device after an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena on Monday.

And counter terrorism agencies are facing questions after sources suggested that, over the last five years, Abedi was flagged to the authorities on at least five separate occasions over his extremist views.

Manchester Arena Terror Attack: Victims

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Speaking to the Telegraph, Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, revealed Abedi was reported to authorities two years ago because of fears "he was involved in extremism and terrorism”.

He said: “People in the community expressed concerns about the way this man was behaving and reported it in the right way using the right channels.

Bomber: Salman Abedi

“They did not hear anything since.”

Meanwhile Akram Ramadan, 49, said Abedi had been banned from Didsbury Mosque for angrily confronting an Imam about an anti-extremism sermon.

Mr Ramadan said he understood he had been placed on a “watch list” after the mosque reported him to authorities for his extremist views.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said that the terrorist was known “up to a point” by intelligence services, but has refused to comment further.

It has also emerged that authorities were aware that Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi, was linked to the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which is banned in Britain.

On Wednesday Ramadan Abedi was arrested by militia in the Libyan capital Tripoli with another son, Hashim, who Libyan security forces said was "aware of all the details" of the attack.

A spokesman for the Libyan authorities told BBC2's Newsnight: "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 had earlier claimed Salman was innocent, saying: "We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us."

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