Manchester Arena Bomber Salman Abedi Was Rescued By Royal Navy In Libya Before Attack metro.co.uk

The Manchester Arena suicide bomber was rescued from the civil war in Libya by the Royal Navy three years before he killed 22 people at a pop concert.

Salman Abedi was 19 when he boarded the HMS Enterprise in Tripoli in August 2014 with his younger brother Hashem and more than 100 other British citizens. It is understood Abedi’s name was on a list of stranded citizens handed to the crew in charge of the evacuation.

The vessel took them to Malta where they caught a flight back to the UK. In May last year, he killed 22 people including seven children at an Ariana Grande concert with a homemade suicide vest.

A Government official said: ‘During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British nationals and their dependants.’ Abedi was being monitored by security services when he travelled to Libya, but his case was closed a month before his rescue.