MI5 had enough intelligence to regard Salman Abedi as a threat to national security and open an investigation before he bombed the Manchester Arena, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds of others, an inquiry has heard.
The Security Service was “struggling to cope” with an increased workload, and the team responsible for the north-west of England had declared an “amber” period of stress and high capacity the month before the attack in 2017.
The information, revealed on Tuesday, came from the testimony of four MI5 witnesses and 10 officers from north west counter-terrorism police, who gave evidence in closed sessions last year after the chair of the Manchester arena inquiry, Sir John Saunders, ruled it could compromise national security if it were heard in public.
Read more…
Source: The Guardian