On Tuesday 29th September, The Times reported that the Manchester bomber’s brother had Islamic State recruitment videos on his phone.
Ismail Abedi had been questioned by counterterrorism police and had pictures on his Facebook where he was holding weapons in 2015, two years before his brother Salm an carried out a suicide attack at the Manchester Arena. According to the newspaper, a photograph, in which he held a machinegun, bore an IS logo. In the latest public enquiry, families of the victims made opening statements where they asked why police and the security services had failed to put together the pieces of the mosaic.
According to John Cooper QC Ismail Abedi’s Facebook account had been “viewed and assessed in July 2015, inferentially by MI5”. The account had images of him holding a rocket-propelled grenade, sitting on an anti-aircraft gun, and holding a machinegun. Paul Greaney, QC, counsel to the inquiry, has said it would explore whether family members were a radicalising influence on Salman and his younger brother, Hashem. Last week Hashem Abedi, now 23, helped Salman and has been jailed for at least 55 years for murder.
Salman Abedi was 22 when he killed 22 people, including children, in his attack at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
