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UK Authorities Name ‘Salman Abedi’ as Manchester Suicide Bomber | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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People rush out of the Arndale shopping centre as it is evacuated in Manchester, Britain May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples


A man who killed 22 people in a suicide bomb attack on a crowded concert hall in the northern English city of Manchester was named by British police on Tuesday as 22-year-old Salman Abedi.

“I can confirm that the man suspected of carrying out last night’s atrocity is 22-year-old Salman Abedi,” Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins told reporters, adding that he would not make any further comments about Abedi at this stage.

“Our priority, along with the police counter terrorism network and our security partners, is to continue to establish whether he was acting alone or working as part of a wider network.”

UK online daily, The Telegraph, said that Abedi was born in Manchester in 1994, the second youngest of four children his parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime.

His 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, the daily added.

On Tuesday, it was reported that terror group ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack.

It is assumed that the perpetrator had indeed been a lone wolf and had triggered the blast alone– nevertheless the national police counter-terror network, assisted by MI5, are urgently piecing together his background to see whether he had any help in planning the outrage.