The alleged Manchester attacker's father and two brothers have been arrested following the Monday night explosion , authorities said.

Salman Abedi, 22, died in the attack at an Ariana Grande concert in northern England. The bombing left 22 dead and more than 60 injured.

Abedi's 23-year-old brother Ismail was arrested in Manchester on Tuesday. A younger brother, 18-year-old Hashim, was also arrested in Tripoli on Tuesday night, a Libyan government spokesperson told the Associated Press . The anti-terror force that arrested him said in a statement, "The brother was aware of all the details of the terrorist attack." He was reportedly in the process of receiving cash transferred from Salman at the time of his arrest.

The bomber's father, Ramadan Abedi (also known as Abu Ismail), was also detained in Tripoli on Wednesday. Before his arrest, he told reporters his son was innocent.

In addition to the brother in Manchester, British police officers said they'd detained four potential associates of Abedi in the U.K. on Wednesday. "It's very clear this is a network we are investigating," Chief Constable Ian Hopkins told the AP . </s> British police on Tuesday named the suspected attacker behind the Manchester concert bombing that killed 22 people as Salman Abedi, but declined to give any further details.

The 22-year-old “has not yet been formally identified and I wouldn’t wish, therefore, to comment further”, said Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of the Greater Manchester Police force.

“The priority remains to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network,” he added.

According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Abedi was born in Manchester to Libyan parents, who fled their country to escape the regime of former dictator Moamer Khadafi.

The family have lived in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester for at least 10 years, it said. Police on Tuesday raided an address in the area, carrying out a controlled explosion to gain entry.

The suspected attacker’s father is known by the honorific Abu Ismael in the Libyan community and worked as an odd-job man in Manchester, according to The Guardian, but is thought to be currently in Tripoli.

“Abu Ismael will be terribly distraught,” one man who knew him told the newspaper.

“He was always very confrontational with jihadi ideology, and this ISIS thing isn’t even jihad, it’s criminality. The family will be devastated,” the man said.

A 23-year-old man was arrested earlier Tuesday in connection with the attack, while a house was raided in the Whalley Range area, also in south Manchester.

“We understand that feelings are very raw right now and people are bound to be looking for answers,” Hopkins, the chief constable, added.

“However, now, more than ever, it is vital that our diverse communities in Greater Manchester stand together and do not tolerate hate.”

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Also, Like us on facebook </s> MANCHESTER/LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - The suspected suicide bomber who killed 22 people at a concert in Manchester, northern England, on Monday has been identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, British police said.

Abedi was born in Manchester in 1994 to parents of Libyan birth, U.S. security officials said, citing British intelligence officials.

His parents emigrated from Libya to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester, where they have lived for at least 10 years, the officials said.

Police raided a house in Elsmore Road in Fallowfield earlier on Tuesday.

A 23-year-old man arrested by police in a separate move in south Manchester in connection with the attack on Tuesday was believed to be Abedi's brother, news reports said.

Abedi had a sister named Jomana Abedi, the U.S. security officials said. (Reporting by Reuters correspondents in Manchester, London and Washington; Writing by Paul Sandle; Editing by William Schomberg) </s> MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Police scrambled to close down a network around the Manchester suicide bomber with arrests in Britain and Tripoli on Wednesday, as details about the investigation were leaked to U.S. media, infuriating authorities who fear a second attack is imminent.

British-born Salman Abedi, 22, who was known to security services, killed 22 people at a concert venue packed with children on Monday.

Authorities believe he had help in building the bomb, which photographs published by the New York Times showed was sophisticated and powerful, and that his accomplices could be ready to strike again.

Manchester police arrested five men and one woman on Wednesday, bringing the total held for questioning to seven, and searched multiple addresses in northern and central England.

Explosives were found at one site, the Independent reported, citing security service sources.

A source said British investigators were hunting for anyone who may have helped build the suicide bomb.

“I think it’s very clear that this is a network that we are investigating,” police chief Ian Hopkins said outside Manchester police headquarters.

“And as I’ve said, it continues at a pace. There’s extensive investigations going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak.”

Abedi, who was born in Manchester in 1994 to Libyan parents, blew himself up on Monday night at the Manchester Arena indoor venue at the end of a concert by U.S. pop singer Ariana Grande attended by thousands of children and teenagers.

Police in Tripoli on Wednesday arrested Abedi’s younger brother and his father, who said he did not expect the attack.

“I spoke to [Salman Abedi] about five days ago ... there was nothing wrong, everything was normal,” Ramadan Abedi told Reuters, moments before he was arrested.

A spokesman for the local counter-terrorism force said his brother Hashem Abedi was arrested on suspicion of links with Islamic State and was suspected of planning to carry out an attack in the Libyan capital.

The first arrest made in Britain on Tuesday was reported by British and U.S. media to be Abedi’s older brother.

Earlier, interior minister Amber Rudd said the bomber had recently returned from Libya. Her French counterpart Gerard Collomb said he had links with Islamic State and had probably visited Syria as well.

U.S. LEAKS

Authorities in Britain have become increasingly angered by U.S. leaks from the investigation, including the bomber’s name on Tuesday and the photos of blood-stained fragments from the bomb on Wednesday.

British police chiefs said the breaches of trust between security service partners were undermining their efforts.

Rudd had earlier scolded U.S. officials for leaking details.

“The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise, so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources, and I have been very clear with our friends that should not happen again,” she said.

But, hours after the warning, the New York Times published the detailed photographs.

A government source told the Guardian newspaper, “Protests have been lodged at every relevant level between the British authorities and our U.S. counterparts.”

British Prime Minster Theresa May will meet U.S. President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, but officials said she would cut short the second leg of her trip to the G7 summit in Italy.

The Manchester bombing has raised concern across Europe.

Cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Berlin and London have suffered militant attacks in the last two years.

SOLDIERS ON THE STREETS

The 22 victims in Manchester included an eight-year-old girl, several teenage girls, a 28-year-old man and a Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters.

Britain’s official terror threat level was raised to “critical”, the highest level, late on Tuesday, meaning an attack was expected imminently.

But with just over two weeks to go until a national election, May’s Conservatives and political parties said they would resume campaigning in the coming days.

Messages and floral tributes left for the victims of the attack on Manchester Arena lie around the statue in St Ann's Square in central Manchester, May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Jon Super

The Manchester bombing was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s transport network.

Rudd said up to 3,800 soldiers could be deployed on Britain’s streets, taking on guard duties to free up police to focus on patrols and investigation. An initial deployment of 984 had been ordered, first in London and then elsewhere.

Soldiers were seen at the Houses of Parliament, May’s Downing Street residence and at the London police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.

The Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a draw for tourists, was canceled because it requires support from police officers, which authorities decided was not a good use of resources given the threat level.

A source close to the bombing investigation told Reuters that the focus was on whether Abedi had received help in putting together the bomb and on where it had been done.

The bomb used in the attack appeared to contain carefully packed shrapnel and have a powerful, high velocity charge, according to leaked photographs from the investigation published by the New York Times.

The BBC reported that security services thought the bomb was too sophisticated for Abedi to have built by himself.

Police arrested three people in South Manchester, one woman in North Manchester, a man in the nearby town of Wigan, and another man in the central English town of Nuneaton.

CANCELED TOUR

Ariana Grande’s representative said on Wednesday she was suspending her tour to assess the situation and to “pay our proper respects to those lost”. The U.S. singer had been scheduled to perform two shows at London’s O2 arena this week.

Chelsea soccer club said it had canceled a victory parade that had been set to take place on Sunday to celebrate its Premier League title.

Several high-profile sporting events are coming up in Britain, including the soccer FA Cup final at London’s Wembley Stadium and the English rugby club competition final at Twickenham on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on June 3.

Britain also has a national election scheduled for June 8.

All campaigning was suspended after the attack, although major parties said they would resume some activities on Thursday and national-level campaigning on Friday.

The government said a minute’s silence would be held at all official buildings at 1000 GMT (6.00 a.m. ET) on Thursday.

Slideshow (19 Images)

Greater Manchester Police said they were now confident they knew the identity of all the people who lost their lives and had made contact with all the families. They said they would formally name the victims after forensic post-mortems, which would take four or five days.

The bombing also left 64 people wounded, of whom 20 were receiving critical care for highly traumatic injuries to major organs and to limbs, a health official said.

France, which has repeatedly been hit by devastating militant attacks since 2015, extended emergency powers.

(For a graphic showing where the blast hit, click tmsnrt.rs/2rbQAay) </s> An intense confrontation years ago in the suburb where suicide bomber Salman Abedi lived took on added meaning this week for Sandra Locke.

Abedi stepped behind her daughter's car several years ago as she tried to reverse it down the narrow street that separates the terraced houses, Locke said. He refused to move and threatened her daughter with violence, she added.

"He came right up to the car window and said that he was going to do this and do that,” Locke recalled. “She was really frightened."

Abedi's family ties and travels in Libya drew severe scrutiny Wednesday as authorities continued to piece together what led the British-born man to carry out the deadliest terror attack in the United Kingdom in more than a decade.

U.S. Africa Command reported Abedi, 22, spent three weeks in Libya and returned to Manchester within days of Monday’s bombing. The purpose of the trip remains unknown.

Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi, and younger brother, Hashem, were taken into custody in Libya on Wednesday. Another brother, Ismail, was taken into police custody in Manchester on Tuesday.

British authorities are investigating whether a terror network helped Abedi carry out the attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena late Monday that killed 22 people and wounded scores.

The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing and said Abedi was one of their soldiers. But British authorities said they have yet to determine if the claim is valid and what, if any, assistance the Manchester college student received in constructing the bomb, picking his target and executing the attack.

Neighbors in the down-at-heel suburb where Abedi lived recalled him as a quiet young man who showed no obvious signs of radicalization, but found he could be abrasive at times. He had recently taken to wearing traditional Islamic dress.

"He never said hello, not so much as a good morning or how are you or anything," Locke said.

James Keary, who grew up in the south Manchester area where the Abedis lived, described him as tall and skinny, and the youngest of four children.

"He just looked like a normal lad going about his business, going to the shops, I would pass by him on the street but he never had much to say," Keary said. "He used to fly a flag with Arabic writing on hanging out of the window but there are a lot of different types of people around here so I didn't think much of it. I can't believe he did this."

The red-brick terrace house the Abedi family lived in the Whalley Range suburb of Manchester remained cordoned off by police Wednesday as the investigation continued.

"I would see him in the garden or in the car. He was pretty anti-social," said neighbor Nisa Akhtar.

Akhtar said she heard loud bangs when police raided Abedi's house earlier this week and detained his older brother, Ismail, who has not been charged.

"My first thought was, 'Oh, gosh, this is like in the movies,'" Akhtar said. "It's been difficult to explain to the children."

Mohammad Fadil, a 25-year-old Internet technology consultant of Libyan descent, said he would see Abedi around Manchester but did not know him well. "He was distant, quiet. He acted by himself and represents only himself," he said.

Fadil said he knew Abedi's older brother, Ismail, though, whom he described as "a very normal citizen of this country. He was recently married. He goes on vacations. Completely normal. What his brother did has nothing to do with him and does not reflect the Libyan community."

Fadil said he would often see Ismail at the Didsbury Mosque in Manchester, a meeting point for the city's Arab and North African Muslim population.

"If there are issues in the community, if anybody has seen anything they would have reported it," Fadil said while speaking outside the mosque, referring to concern that not enough is being done to weed out potential Islamic radicals in the United Kingdom.

As Fadil spoke, a car drove by the mosque and a man leaned out the window and shouted: "Shut it down."

"We are not terrorists. We are doctors," Fadil said.

Hamid El-Sayed, who has worked for the United Nations on curbing radicalization and now works at Manchester University, told the BBC that Abedi had a "really bad relationship" with his family.

"Eventually he was doing very bad at his university, at his education, and he didn't complete, and they tried to take him back to Libya several times," El-Sayed said. "He had difficulties adjusting to European lifestyle."

The Abedis emigrated to London from Tripoli in the 1990s after Moammar Gadhafi’s security authorities issued an arrest warrant for them. They eventually sought political asylum in Britain and settled in Manchester’s sizable Libyan community. The elder Abedis later moved back to Libya, where Ramadan Abedi, the father, is now the administrative manager of the Tripoli's Central Security force.

Ramadan Abedi told the Associated Press that his son visited Libya about a month and a half ago, and denied he was linked to militants or responsible for the attack. France’s interior minister Gerard Collomb said British investigators told French officials they suspect Abedi may have also recently traveled to Syria, France’s BFMTV and the New York Times reported.

​Abedi said his son sounded “normal” when he spoke to him five days ago. He confirmed that Ismail, another son living in Manchester, was taken into police custody after the attack.

Late Wednesday, Libyan officials said counter-terrorism officials arrested the bomber's father as well as the younger brother, Hashem Abedi, the Associated Press reports. Hashem was taken into custody on suspicion of links to the Islamic State, while the father was detained to be questioned, officials said.

Abedi said Salman planned to travel to Saudi Arabia and then to Libya to spend the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with family.

“We don’t believe in killing innocents,” Abedi said before his arrest. “This is not us.”

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook in Washington and Aamer Madhani in Chicago </s> The father and younger brother of the suspect in the suicide bombing that killed 22 people in Manchester, England, have been arrested in Libya, according to multiple reports.

Reuters reports that Ramadan Abedi, the father of suspect Salman Abedi, was detained outside his home in Ayn Zara, a suburb of the Libyan capital city of Tripoli.

Prior to his arrest, Ramadan Abedi had said in an interview with the Associated Press that he didn’t believe his son was involved in the attack.

“We don’t believe in killing innocents,” he told the AP. “This is not us.”

The New York Times reports that the suspect’s younger brother, Hashem Abedi, 20, was detained.

The Times reports that in a Facebook post written in Arabic, the Special Deterrence Forces, a Libyan militia, alleged Hashem Abedi was a member of the Islamic state who had been involved with the Manchester plot.

According to the Facebook post, Hashem Abedi traveled from Britain to Libya on April 16 and had been in daily phone contact with Salman Abedi ever since then. The post also alleged Hashem Abedi was planning an attack in Libya.

The Associated Press reports that neither Ramadan Abedi or Hashem Abedi have been charged.

Meanwhile, Manchester police have said that Salman Abedi was part of a larger terrorist network and that he didn’t act alone. In a news conference, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said that four other people had been arrested in connection with the attack at Manchester Arena.

“It is very clear that it’s a network we’re investigating,” he told reporters. “We are carrying out extensive searches of premises across Manchester.”

Three of the four arrests were made on the south side of Manchester, the area where Abedi lived, according to authorities. Hopkins declined to identify the four people in custody. (Abedi died in the arena explosion.

Hopkins said investigators are conducting multiple raids, including at least one where a controlled explosion was used to help gain access.

“Officers are currently at the scene,” Hopkins said, “but in order to do this safely, we briefly had to close a nearby mainline railway, which has now been reopened. Those extensive searches will now continue.”

Hopkins warned that people in the area will see heightened police presence.

“People will have seen a significant increase in the number of armed officers in Greater Manchester,” he said. “With the threat level [nationwide] being increased to critical, you will be aware that military are supporting policing across the country. We were able to receive additional armed policing support.”

Upcoming Manchester events are expected to proceed as planned, however.

“We are using [the increased police] to help in our efforts to enable the Manchester Games and Manchester 10k to go ahead,” Hopkins said. “We are working with event organizers and Manchester City Council to review and enhance our safety and security.”

Hopkins said that one of the casualties of Monday’s bombing — which killed 22 and injured more than 100 — was a police officer, but he did not identify the victim, citing the family’s wishes.

Among the dead are children, teenagers and parents. </s> British police have identified Salman Abedi, 22, as the bomber behind the attack on an Ariana Grande concert Monday in Manchester, England. Abedi died in the bombing, which claimed the lives of at least 22 victims and injured dozens more — many of whom were children.

Law enforcement in the U.K. continued to expand its investigation Wednesday, citing a wider terror network and arresting at least six people in connection with the attack.

"Clearly, this was a pretty sophisticated and powerful bomb," a high-ranking Western government official told NPR, explaining that officers believe Abedi received help with the attack. "Our assessment is he did not have the skills to build such a bomb, and the conclusion is there is a bomb-maker out there."

Greater Manchester Police say Abedi — a British national whose father, Ramadan, comes from Libya — was part of a wider terror network.

His family has come under scrutiny, as well: Libya's RADA counterterrorism force issued a statement on Facebook saying it has arrested and interrogated Abedi's younger brother, Hashim. In the statement, the force says that the 20-year-old engineering student had been planning to launch an attack of his own in Tripoli and that after his arrest Tuesday night, Hashim confessed to ties with the Islamic State and knowledge of his brother's alleged plans for the Manchester attack.

The Associated Press reports the brothers' father, Ramadan Abedi, was also arrested in Libya but did not say why. In an interview with the AP before his arrest, Ramadan Abedi said his 23-year-old son, Ismail, had been arrested Tuesday, as well.

"We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us," Ramadan Abedi told the news service. "We aren't the ones who blow up ourselves among innocents. We go to mosques. We recite Quran, but not that."

Ramadan Abedi fled to the U.K. in the early 1990s to escape the regime of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, according to The Guardian. The British newspaper reports that in 2001, he returned briefly to the country, where he fought Gadhafi's soldiers as part of the al-Qaida-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting group.

A Libyan neighbor says the elder Abedi returned again to Libya in 2011 after Gadhafi's government fell.

Salman Abedi lived for years with family in a modest red-brick house in the Fallowfield section of Manchester, a middle- to working-class neighborhood. Though his neighbors tell NPR they did not know him well, some of them recall an incident in which a resident complained to police several years ago that members of the Abedi family had shown signs of radicalization.

Police had followed up on the complaint at the time and visited the house.

The senior Western official tells NPR that Salman Abedi had returned from a trip to Libya in the past several days. </s> Image caption Eight-year-old Saffie Roussos and Georgina Callander are among the dead

Salman Abedi has been named by police as the suspected suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured 59 at Manchester Arena on Monday night.

The 22-year-old was born in Manchester to parents of Libyan descent, the BBC understands.

Three of his victims have been named - Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, Georgina Callander and John Atkinson, 28.

Greater Manchester Police said the priority was to establish whether Abedi had worked alone or not.

The former Salford University student is thought to have blown himself up in the arena's foyer shortly after 22:30 BST on Monday, as fans were beginning to leave a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

A vigil for the dead and injured was held in front of the town hall in Manchester's Albert Square on Tuesday evening.

Earlier, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins passed on "heartfelt sympathies to all the innocent people caught up in last night's despicable act", adding that specially trained officers were supporting families.

Image caption John Atkinson was the third victim named

Eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos was a pupil at Tarleton Primary School, in Lancashire.

Her head teacher, Chris Upton, said she had been "simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word" and was "loved by everyone".

John Atkinson was from Bury, Greater Manchester.

Student Georgina Callander, believed to have been 18, had been studying health and social care at Runshaw College in Leyland, Lancashire.

The wounded, who include 12 children aged under 16, are being treated at eight hospitals across Manchester.

Several people are still missing, including Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra in the Outer Hebrides, 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19.

Eilidh's friend, Laura MacIntyre, 15 - who was also reported as missing - was later identified as one of the seriously injured in a Manchester hospital.

Vigil interrupted

Thousands of people turned out for the vigil in Manchester and to hold a minute's silence to remember those who died.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Commons Speaker John Bercow stood on stage alongside Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins.

Vigils have been held elsewhere, including in Birmingham, where the event was interrupted after a man apparently armed with a large knife and a baseball bat was detained nearby.

Image copyright PA Image caption Thousands of people gathered at a vigil in central Manchester on Tuesday evening

In other developments:

Relatives are using social media to hunt for missing loved ones, and an emergency number - 0800 096 0095 - has been set up

- has been set up Flags are flying at half mast outside Number 10 and political parties have suspended general election campaigning until further notice

The prime minister and the Labour leader both signed the book of condolence at Manchester's Town Hall

Extra armed officers will be deployed to Wembley and Twickenham at the weekend, while security at all upcoming events and venues in England is under review.

World leaders have expressed solidarity with the UK, including US President Donald Trump, who called those behind the attack "evil losers"

Exam boards are telling schools directly affected by the attack that they can re-arrange GCSE and A-level exams in the wake of the attack

Police have established a help centre at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, access Gate 11, for anyone who needs assistance in tracing loved ones

The Queen extended her "deepest sympathy" to all those affected; Pope Francis offered "heartfelt solidarity" with the victims and their families

Take That are among a number a performers who have cancelled concerts "out of respect". They have cancelled four shows this week, including three in Manchester

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May says the Manchester attack was an act of 'sickening cowardice'

In a statement in Downing Street on Tuesday, the prime minister said the bombing had been a "callous terrorist attack" that targeted "defenceless young people".

Number 10 later said Mrs May, who visited a children's hospital in Manchester, had been updated throughout Monday night and had phoned Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at 04:00 BST to brief him.

The arena bombing is the worst terrorist attack in the UK since the 7 July bombings in 2005, in which 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers.

So-called Islamic State has said - via IS channels on the messaging app Telegram - it was behind the Manchester attack, but this has not been verified.

The director general of the security service MI5, Andrew Parker, condemned the terrorist attack as "disgusting" and said the security service remained "relentlessly focused, in numerous current operations, on doing all we can to combat the scourge of terrorism and keep the country safe".

Witnesses at the arena described seeing metal nuts and bolts among the debris of Monday's bomb, and spoke about the fear and confusion that gripped concert-goers.

Andy Holey, who had gone to pick up his wife and daughter, said: "An explosion went off and it threw me about 30ft from one set of doors to the other set of doors."

Emma Johnson, who was waiting for her children, aged 15 and 17, said: "The whole building shook. There was a blast and then a flash of fire afterwards. There were bodies everywhere."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Phil Dick describes on PM how he took care of an injured young girl while searching for his own children

Teenager Abigail Walker told the BBC: "I had to make sure I had my sister. I grabbed hold of her and pulled hard. Everyone was running and crying.

"It was absolutely terrifying."

The explosion happened shortly after US singer Ariana Grande had left the stage and the 23-year-old tweeted: "broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words".

Image copyright PA Image caption A forensic investigator was seen leaving the Fallowfield property holding a booklet called "Know your Chemicals"

Abedi, who had at least three siblings, had lived at several addresses in Manchester, including a property at Elsmore Road, Fallowfield, which was raided by police on Tuesday.

Armed police have also arrested a 23-year-old man in Chorlton, south Manchester, in connection with the attack.

Mr Hopkins said searches at two addresses had been carried out, including the one in Fallowfield, where a controlled explosion had been used to gain "safe" access.

He said Abedi had not been formally identified and so would not comment further. </s> The suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured dozens more at the Manchester Arena has been named as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, according to US officials.

Born in Manchester in 1994, the second youngest of four children his parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime.

His mother, Samia Tabbal, 50, and father, Ramadan Abedi, a security officer, were both born in Libya but appear to have emigrated to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they have lived for at least ten years.

After giving birth to two sons, they had son Hashem Abedi, now 20, and daughter Jomana, 18.

Jomana, who has two Facebook profiles, attended Whalley Range High School before apparently working at Didsbury Mosque in 2013.

Although born in Manchester, she states online that she is from Tripoli and has many Libyan connections. Her profile also makes reference to wearing a hijab.

Abedi grew up in the Whalley Range area, just yards from the local girl's high school, which hit the headlines in 2015 when twins and grade A pupils, Zahra and Salma Halane, who were both aspiring medical students, left their homes and moved to Isil controlled Syria.

There were unconfirmed reports in Manchester that the whole family apart from the two elder sons recently returned to Libya.
The man suspected of carrying out the Manchester attack is identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who died at the scene. Abedi was born in Manchester to Libyan parents.