Manchester bomber called his mother before attack, said ‘forgive me’

A spokesman for an anti-terror force in Libya says the suspect in the Manchester bombing attack telephoned his mother hours before the attack and said, “Forgive me.”

Special Deterrent Force spokesman Ahmed bin Salem said Thursday that 22-year-old Salman Abedi’s mother and three of his siblings in Libya were summoned for questioning. Abedi died in the attack.

Bin Salem says the mother told interrogators that her son left Libya for England only four days before the bombing and called her on the same day of the attack.

Bin Salem said: “He was giving farewell.”

Another sibling, 18-year-old brother Hashim, and Abedi’s father were arrested in Tripoli on Wednesday.

Bin Salem said Libyan investigators think, based on what Hashim Abedi told them, “the bomber acted alone.”

He says the brother told them that Salman learned how to make explosives on the internet and wanted to “seek victory for the Islamic State.”

— Agencies