MI5 missed several opportunities to prevent the 2017 suicide bombing in Manchester Arena and in the handling of bomber Salman Abedi, according to a report released by the Intelligence and Security Committee today.
Thirty-six people had died and many more were injured when terrorists attacked Manchester Arena and launched vehicle, knife and bomb attacks in London.
“While it is impossible to say whether these would have prevented the devastating attack on May 22, we have concluded that, as a result of the failings, potential opportunities to prevent it were missed,” said Dominic Grieve, the committee chairman.
Britain is currently on its second-highest threat level of severe, meaning an attack is considered highly likely and security officials say they are facing record levels of work in countering Islamist militants as well as far-right extremists.
Whilst acknowledging their heavy workload and many other successes, the ISC said MI5 had made mistakes over Abedi who had been known to the security agency since 2014.
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