Posted May 25, 2017 19:47:51

Photo: Salman Abedi was in Libya the week before the bombing, and allegedly went to Syria. (AP)

British intelligence authorities are investigating links between Salman Abedi, the suspected Manchester bomber, and radical Islamist groups in Libya.

Abedi, 22, was the son of Libyan parents who emigrated to the UK in the 1990's.

He had been in Libya for several weeks until returning to the UK days before Monday night's attack at the Manchester Arena.

Police believe he detonated a homemade bomb he had carried to the venue in a backpack.

The bomb exploded near the ticket box, killing Abedi and 22 others, and wounding 64.

Law enforcement officials believe the sophistication of the device suggests Abedi had outside help and was part of a larger jihadist network.

Abedi's father Ramadan and younger brother Hashim were arrested overnight in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Photo: Ramadan Abedi denied his son's involvement in the attack. (AP)

Libyan security authorities said the younger son had confessed that he and his brother Salman were members of Islamic State and that he "knew all the details" of the Manchester attack plan.

A third brother, Ismail, was arrested in Manchester in connection to the bombing.

Investigators are now keen to know how often Salman travelled to Libya, who he met there, what links he had to Libyan jihadist groups, and whether he received any terrorist training.

Libyan security official Abdel-Basit Haroun has alleged the Abedi father was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which is linked to Al Qaeda.

Mr Abedi senior denies this.

Photo: Hashim Abedi, the younger brother of the Manchester bomber, has been arrested. (Facebook: Yousef Hannaa)

In an interview with journalists before his arrest, Mr Abedi also denied his son Salman was behind the Manchester bombing.

"We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us," Mr Abedi, 51, said.

"Last time I spoke to [Salman], he sounded normal. There was nothing worrying at all."

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Mr Abedi said he spoke to Salman five days ago, when his son told him he was planning to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.

He said his son was also planning to return to Libya to spend the holy month of Ramadan with family.

He also denied his son had spent time in Syria or fought alongside the Islamic State (IS) group, which has claimed credit for Monday's bombing.

It is understood Mr Abedi senior returned to live in Tripoli some time after the fall of Moamar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, and now works for the central security force in Tripoli.

Libya an incubator for Islamist terrorism, recruiting

The power vacuum in Libya in recent years has seen an explosion of radical and militant groups fighting for power, and a proliferation of weapons.

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Gaddafi himself warned in 2011 that jihadist groups would attack Europe if his government was allowed to fall.

"They want to control the Mediterranean and then they will attack Europe," he told former UK prime minister Tony Blair by phone.

"Libyan people will die. Damage will be on the Med [Mediterranean], Europe and the whole world.

"These armed groups are using the situation as a justification — and we shall fight them."

Al Qaeda already had sleeper cells established in the region before 2011. But Libya since then has become an incubator for Islamist terrorism and a recruiting ground for jihadists.

Photo: Composite CCTV camera stills show a man believed to be Salman carrying the backpack. (Supplied: Sky)

Today IS has a considerable presence in the country.

US officials estimated last year IS had up to 6,000 recruits in Libya who had exploited the country's ongoing instability.

A UN report suggested the group's presence in Libya was growing as it shrank in Iraq and Syria.

IS in Libya had "been boosted by waves of Libyan refugees returning from fighting in Syria", the report said.

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In addition, it said Libya had continued to attract foreign terrorist fighters in significant numbers from North Africa.

Libya has also been an important training ground for IS recruits.

IS gunmen who killed scores of British tourists at a beach in neighbouring Tunisia were trained at camps in Libya.

The US last year carried out air strikes against key IS targets in Libya, and Libyan forces have succeeded in reclaiming some territory under IS control.

But the lack of a unified government and the presence of myriad militant groups has made it difficult to eradicate the jihadist group.

British investigators yesterday told French authorities that Salman Abedi, as well as travelling to Libya, had also probably been in Syria, although was not clear how much they knew.

"We only know what British investigators have told us: someone of British nationality, of Libyan origin, who suddenly after a trip to Libya, then probably to Syria, becomes radicalised and decides to carry out this attack," France's Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

"In any case, [he had] links with Daesh [Islamic State] that are proven."

Abedi's father denies his son had travelled to Syria, saying he had seen his son's passports and there was no evidence he had been there.

Topics: terrorism, law-crime-and-justice, unrest-conflict-and-war, england, united-kingdom, libyan-arab-jamahiriya