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How did UK police and MI5 miss the Manchester bomber?
Alec Fenn
Europe;UK
Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at Manchester Arena that killed 22 people. Now a three-year public inquiry has concluded that he could have been stopped in the months, hours and minutes before the attack. /AFP.
Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at Manchester Arena that killed 22 people. Now a three-year public inquiry has concluded that he could have been stopped in the months, hours and minutes before the attack. /AFP.

Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at Manchester Arena that killed 22 people. Now a three-year public inquiry has concluded that he could have been stopped in the months, hours and minutes before the attack. /AFP.

At 10:31 p.m. on May 22, 2017, Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb hidden in his rucksack at Manchester Arena. Twenty-two people were killed and 500 left injured. 

The terrorist attack, which occurred as thousands of people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert, left a permanent scar on the city and mental wounds inside the minds of survivors and families of the deceased.

In the aftermath of that fateful night, a three-year public inquiry was launched with the aim of finding out whether Abedi could have been thwarted before carrying out his suicide attack.

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The inquiry released its findings this week and found that MI5, the police and security staff missed multiple opportunities to stop the former Manchester schoolboy in the months, hours and minutes before he detonated his bomb.

 

MI5's missed opportunities

John Saunders, who has led the inquiry, revealed that Abedi had been on the radar of security services since he was 15 - seven years before the night of the bombing.

MI5, the UK's counter intelligence and security service, were aware that Abedi was a supporter of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and had links to jihadis in Manchester and Libya. They also knew that he'd traveled to conflict zones in Libya several times.

A meeting had been scheduled to discuss Abedi's movements for May 31, 2017, nine days after the attack, but he wasn't under active investigation. The inquiry discovered that two pieces of intelligence that were given to MI5 in the months leading up to the attack weren't acted upon.

"There was a significant missed opportunity to take action that might have prevented the attack," said Saunders.

"An ordinary member of the public would be deeply concerned to find out that, some time before the attack, the Security Service had information which transpired to be relevant to Abedi's plan and yet took no action in response."

Much of the information about the intelligence that MI5 received has been kept secret for national security reasons, but Saunders says it's clear that more could have been done to prevent the loss of 22 lives.

He added: "There was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack."

The Head of MI5, Ken McCallum, has issued an apology to families. 

"Gathering covert intelligence is difficult – but had we managed to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma," he said. "I am profoundly sorry that MI5 did not prevent the attack."

MI5 have revealed they had been aware of Abedi since he was 15 and received two pieces of intelligence - that they failed to act upon - that could've prevented him carrying out the attack months beforehand./AFP.
MI5 have revealed they had been aware of Abedi since he was 15 and received two pieces of intelligence - that they failed to act upon - that could've prevented him carrying out the attack months beforehand./AFP.

MI5 have revealed they had been aware of Abedi since he was 15 and received two pieces of intelligence - that they failed to act upon - that could've prevented him carrying out the attack months beforehand./AFP.

Police failings

But those weren't the only missed opportunities to stop Abedi from detonating his bomb. 

As part of the inquiry, police and security staff inside the arena were quizzed about their movements and whether they were aware of the 22-year-old in the moments leading up to the attack.

CCTV footage acquired from the City Room where Abedi detonated his bomb, found that four policemen on duty left the room without a police presence for a full hour before Abedi carried out his deadly blast. 

British Transport Police Officer Jessica Bullough and PCSO Mark Renshaw also admitted to taking a two-hour break, which included a five-mile trip to a kebab shop. One and a half hours later, Abedi entered the arena before their return, with no officers on patrol. 

Bullough admitted her conduct was unacceptable and that she would have asked Abedi about the contents of his rucksack had she seen him.

 

Warnings from the public

The footage, along with interviews with two security staff, also revealed that a member of the public, Chris Wild, had reported Abedi to them twice after becoming concerned about his suspicious behavior.

Two members of security staff, Kyle Lawler and Mohammed Agha, attempted to report his suspicions to colleagues but were unable to contact them via radio. The pair then left the City Room just minutes before the bomb was detonated.

Two independent security experts, David BaMaung and Colonel Richard Latham, told the inquiry that both Agha and Lawler had "insufficient direction on how to respond or report suspicious behavior and encouragement to act upon it."

Both BaMaung and Latham admitted that "realistically" Abedi would still have detonated his bomb, despite the intervention of police or security staff, but said that fewer lives would have been lost. 

The findings have been met with an outpouring of anger from the relatives of those who died in the blast, who have accused MI5 and the police of failing to protect the public.

Andrew Roussos, whose eight-year-old daughter Saffie-Rose was killed in the blast, said MI5 staff have "blood on their hands" for letting Abedi slip through the cracks.

Seven years on, the inquiry has opened old wounds for all those involved.

 

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