Salman Abedi, 23, was identified as the attacker who detonated a suicide bomb at the Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing at least 22 and injuring 59 others. According to reports, Abedi used a nail bomb. ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the attack and Abedi died at the scene.
Now, pictures obtained by Daily Mail show Salman Abedi as an innocent schoolboy, about seven years before he murdered 22 people including children by detonating a bomb at Manchester Arena on Monday, May 22.
According to classmates, the pictures were taken near his home in South Manchester and on a trip in his parents’ home country of Libya when he was 14 or 15.
Abedi, who was described as an ‘ordinary teenager’, reportedly showed little interest in religion. His friends even said that he smoked marijuana.
Abedi went to Burnage Academy, a boy’s school catering largely to Manchester’s Asian community and was a keen footballer, often playing at the ground at Whalley Range High School where the Manchester United Foundation held soccer sessions.
On Tuesday, May 23, ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing in a brief statement that did not identify the bomber. The statement also appeared to get some of the facts of the attack wrong. ISIS claimed a “caliphate soldier managed to place a number of devices among a gathering of crusaders in Manchester, and detonated them”, however, officials say there was only one explosion, and no other devices have been discovered at the arena.
The bombing at the Ariana Grande concert was the deadliest in England since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London’s train system in 2005.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this senseless tragedy.
