The risk to national security from people returning from Libya in 2017 was “underestimated” by the British authorities, an inquiry into the Manchester Arena attack has found, according to the Irish Times.
Manchester-born bomber, Salman Abedi, 22, of Libyan descent flew in from the North African country four days before his suicide attack.
Abedi and his younger brother Hashem, now aged 25, who was jailed for life for helping to plot the bombing. They visited Libya in 2011 with their father Ramadan during the civil war, and according to inquiry chair, Sir John Saunders, were likely to have been involved in the fighting.
Ramadan Abedi had made clear his support for suicide attacks in the Libya conflict on Facebook.
Both brothers were rescued by the Royal Navy from Libya in 2014.
Sir John’s report into whether the 2017 attack could have been prevented said the brothers were radicalized in Libya, where it is “probable” they got training or help in how to build a bomb.
In 2010, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) conducted a regional assessment of Manchester which Sir John said: “accurately predicted what subsequently happened with Salman Abedi and Hashem Abedi.”
“The 2010 JTAC report warned that young Libyan-linked individuals might be influenced by links to extremist groups such as the LIFG (Libyan Islamic Fighting Group),” he said.
Sir John said it was “entirely understandable” that MI5 viewed returnees from Syria in 2017 as a greater threat to national security than Libya.
“However, the focus on Syria meant that both the Security Service and Counter Terrorism Police North West underestimated the risk from Libya in 2017. To have ‘run the intelligence machine’ to investigate every person returning from Libya would have been impractical at that time, according to the Security Service witnesses, because there were legitimate reasons to visit Libya,” he added.
“It was necessary, for practical reasons as well as other reasons, for there to be some particular indicators that would cause the fact of somebody’s return from Libya to be treated with concern by the Security Service. The threshold that the Security Services applied when deciding whether to investigate any returnee from Libya was, in my view, too high and amounted to a risky position. This was particularly so against the backdrop of the careful assessment of JTAC in 2010, which identified a danger of radicalization of young members of the Libyan community in Manchester.”
Notably, the head of MI5 said today that he was “profoundly sorry” the security service did not prevent the Manchester Arena attack.
A public inquiry found MI5 missed a significant chance to take action that might have stopped the 2017 bombing.
Chairman Sir John said the intelligence could have led to Abedi being followed to a car where he stored his explosives.
MI5 Director-General, Ken McCallum said he regretted that such intelligence was not obtained.
Twenty-two people died and hundreds were injured when Abedi detonated his homemade device in the foyer of Manchester Arena as crowds left an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017.
