Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi had links to an Islamic State cell which operated in the city, and knew one of the terror group's most prolific recruiters, Sky News can reveal.

Our investigation reveals how Abedi grew up on the same housing estates in south Manchester as a group of young men who radicalised each other - with some fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq.

Using documents obtained from inside Islamic State, we have been investigating for a year how this group was radicalised, and who did the radicalising.

Image: There is a 'significant' link between Salman Abedi and Raphael Hostey

Information in the 'IS Files' - a huge cache of documents obtained by Sky News - shows how a baby-faced IS fighter called Raphael Hostey, from Moss Side in the south of the city, sponsored hundreds of terror recruits.

Abedi and Hostey hung around on the same estates and worshipped in the same Didsbury mosque, before they became disaffected with life in the West.


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Counter-terrorism sources have told Sky News they have established a "significant" connection between the two men as they investigate the murder of 22 concertgoers and search for possible accomplices.

Although his death has not been confirmed by UK authorities, Hostey is thought to have been killed by a drone strike in Syria last year at the age of 24.

South Manchester, and in particular Moss Side, was once plagued by drugs and gun crime during Manchester's gangland years, but it has seen huge improvement in recent years thanks to tireless work from campaigners in the community.

But as the area has cast off its 'Gunchester' image a new threat has emerged - from the ruthlessly effective IS propaganda machine, with at least 16 young people from the wider area believed to have signed up to fight jihad abroad.

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Hostey - who grew up less than a mile from Abedi's Fallowfield home - used the nom de guerre Abu Qaqaa al Britani on social media to lure hundreds of fighters to join IS, including dozens of his fellow Britons.

The IS Files - revealed by Sky News in March 2016 - gave an unprecedented insight into the inner workings of the most brutal terror group in the world.

They show the former graphic design student - who left a wife and child in Manchester when he travelled to Syria in 2013 - was the named sponsor for a series of young men and women, many from the North West.

Hostey sponsored a number of young men from Moss Side, including former RAF gunner and Muslim convert Stephen Gray, Raymond Matimba and Ronald Fiddler (AKA Jamal al Harith), in their attempts to join IS.

Gray is in jail for terrorism offences, Matimba was killed fighting in Syria, and Ronald Fiddler killed himself in a suicide bombing in February this year.

There are others who are believed to still be fighting for IS.

Authorities have now admitted that more could have been done to prevent them being radicalised.

At the time this cell was formed, Peter Fahy was chief constable of Greater Manchester Police and counter-terrorism lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers.

"We didn't really believe that this could happen," he told Sky News.

"Suddenly, organisations like ISIS could stream their poisonous ideology into a child's bedroom, and still I think a lot of people believe that won't have any impact.

"We started to see cases where young men, even young women, were receiving this stuff and making decisions to leave their families, abandon their futures and go out to conflict zones."

He added: "If you look at the pattern we've seen in Manchester, Birmingham and parts of West Yorkshire, you've got some people who are open to that ideology.

"You have young people who may feel a sense of isolation from the country that they're living in and that is the right territory for IS to play in."

Counter-terrorism police will continue to arrest anyone who has suspicious links to Salman Abedi.

But none of this Manchester cell will be targets - because they are either dead, in prison or fighting in Syria.