The ferocity of the bomb and the targeting of concert-goers, mainly teenagers and youngsters, horrified the country. The Manchester Arena attack came as a local and national shock. The resulting explosion was so powerful that it killed 22, physically injured 237, and traumatized hundreds more. On May 22, 2017, Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old of Libyan descent born in the city of Manchester, detonated a large improvised explosive device in the foyer of the Manchester Arena as an Ariana Grande pop concert was drawing to a close. This context may have indirectly contributed to a culture in which the two brothers hatched their plan. From a young age, they had close family links to significant extremist figures in their community and later developed their own friendships with local jihadis. The two brothers were raised within this Islamist milieu. No one else has been charged in connection to the plot, but there were clusters of British-Libyan Islamists in Manchester and Libya, some of whom had connections to al-Qa`ida, the Islamic State, and other extremist groups, over two generations. The road to Salman and Hashem Abedi’s attack, however, did not emerge in a vacuum. The operational phase of the attack took place over a period of at least five months. Three years after the attack, his younger brother, Hashem, was tried and convicted in the United Kingdom of assisting and encouraging him to carry out the atrocity. He was close friends with a key U.K.-based recruiter for the group and reportedly met with Islamic State fighters in Libya. While it is still not clear, as a matter of public record, whether the Islamic State played a direct role in the attack, Abedi knew several British extremists who joined the group. The attack was carried out by Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old of Libyan descent born in the city of Manchester. Abstract: May 2020 marks the third anniversary of the suicide bombing attack at the Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom.
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