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Police in Manchester as the investigation continues.

Salman Abedi was 16 when he first visited Libya, the country his parents had fled in 1993 to escape persecution under Muammer Gaddafi. But this was no ordinary coming-of-age trip for Abedi. Once there, he reunited with his father, who had left his family in Manchester three years earlier to aid the revolution against Gaddafi. And, according to friends of the family, members of the Libyan community in Manchester and sources in Libya, Abedi had come to fight.

He was not alone. It was 2011, and dozens of other Mancunians were already there. Mustafa Graf, the imam of the Didsbury mosque, the centre of the Libyan community in south Manchester, had also travelled back to Libya to help topple Gaddafi. Manchester became a fundraising centre for their war effort. Preachers travelled between the two countries, encouraging the fight, invariably couching it in terms of jihad.

This week, the 22-year-old Abedi detonated a rucksack filled with tricyclic acetone peroxide, bolts and nails, murdering 22 others and maiming dozens more, many of them children and young adults, in the worst terror attack to strike the UK since the 7/7 London bombings 12 years earlier. The attack on the Manchester Arena cast a spotlight on the city and its community of Libyan exiles, dozens of whom have gone to fight in Libya in recent years with Islamist militias.

Throughout the years of Gaddafi rule in Libya, Manchester was a magnet for Libyan exiles like the Abedis. The city's Libyan community, one of the largest outside Libya, is tightly knit. "Everyone knows everyone," says one Libyan living in the city.

Britain's intelligence agencies knew the community well, too, and had longstanding dealings with its Islamist contingent. But the attack raises serious questions over their assessment of it. MI5, the UK's domestic intelligence agency, facilitated the travel of many Islamist Mancunians back to Libya.

Until recently, the UK's spymasters have not seen the community as a particular threat. Libyan Islamists in Manchester, many believed, were too focused on waging a national jihad in their homeland to be a threat to the UK. Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war and the spate of attacks in France, Belgium and Germany, anti-terror work in the UK and Europe has focused on young returnees from Syria.

Security officials have repeatedly sketched out the dangerous dynamics the Syrian crisis has unleashed: a cohort of young Britons who will be brutalised by the conflict, skilled in the trade and tools of war, connected to transnational networks of fellow fighters by powerful bonds of kinship and shared suffering.

It is a prognosis that holds true for the civil war in Libya. The story of Salman Abedi is one of a parallel, overlooked jihad to that in Syria.

"These are fundamentally questions of identity. What are the local grievances that would lead someone to blow up a load of young people at a concert with nails and bolts? Manchester isn't the city that made those grievances fester and grow," says Richard Barrett, former director of global counter terrorism operations at MI6. "It's the ability of groups like ISIS to wrap up your individual and local anxieties and grievances into this overall huge picture to make you a somebody."

Throughout Abedi's childhood in Manchester, Libya was ever-present. The vast majority of Libyans in the city are well integrated, but some cliques remain staunchly nationalist, still affected by the brutal treatment at the hands of Gaddafi's regime that prompted many families to flee. Islamist views the cause of that persecution often shade into such nationalism.

Ramadan Abedi, Salman's father, was a member of the Libyan nationalist-Islamist nexus in Manchester. By some accounts, he was a senior member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, the liberation movement that was the core of anti-Gaddafi Salafism. His sons grew up with tales of the injustices inflicted on devout Muslims in Libya.

When Salman was 13, his father returned to Libya as part of a deal brokered between the Gaddafi regime then keen to rehabilitate itself on the global stage and migr Islamists. It was an uneasy rapprochement, and one in which the UK's intelligence agencies were deeply involved, as they sought to mine information from both sides to advance the war on terror.

Three years later, in 2011, the uneasy settlement in Libya had broken apart in the wake of the Arab uprisings, and the country was at war. It was then that Salman and his father were reunited.

The reunion took place against a backdrop of mounting western concern over Libya. As Gaddafi's repression grew bloodier, Britain and France led a push for military intervention. The UK's military role in the Nato-led coalition that ousted the regime is well documented. Less well covered is the degree to which it facilitated the movement of anti-Gaddafi Islamists from Britain. Dozens of migrs who had fled Gaddafi for Manchester returned to fight him.

In Libya, many connected with Islamist militias, the most capable anti-Gaddafi forces, and swelled their ranks.

Bilal Bettammer, a Libyan student and social activist in the revolution, now a lawyer in Canada, recalls the influx.

"I'd say of the more hardline groups, 60 or 70 per cent of their fighters in the beginning were from abroad. In 2011 we noticed a big influence from Manchester. There were lots of them in Derna. There were Libyan families here cashing British welfare cheques. Those went a long way in dinar."

Mr Bettammer recalls watching a British preacher in Libya. "We have to choose sharia and reject secularism, he was saying. He was from Manchester, talking about stories of his life there. About the need to convert people. It was all the usual rhetoric but, in Libya, it had a violent meaning."

Mr Bettammer says he and other secularist campaigners tried to warn the British ambassador to Libya at the time about the number of Britons and their radical views but were rebuffed. The UK, he says, wanted to encourage them instead because it viewed the Islamist groups as a more viable anti-Gaddafi alternative to native secularists.

Libyans dubbed the ranks of British Islamists "double shafras" - shafra is the Arabic word for a SIM card. It is a telling metaphor for the degree to which the fighters easily straddled two worlds. Back in Manchester, the phenomenon was well known in the Libyan community. "I think everyone knows someone who went," a local housewife says.

But within the Libyan foreign fighter movement another divide would emerge, as younger fighters became more radicalised.

Akram Ramadan, a Libyan who lives upstairs from one of the flats in Manchester's Whalley Range neighbourhood that was raided in the wake of the attack, says a "lack of family control" led many of the younger Mancunian fighters towards violent anti-western jihadism. Mr Ramadan fought against Gaddafi in the revolution and saw its effects on the sons of Manchester's Libyan fighters.

"They're not accepted in any society this society or that society over there," Mr Ramadan says. "Here, they look foreign. There, they sound foreign. There's no acceptance of them or appreciation for what they did.

"It happened to a lot of kids. They hung about together and played football together. Some of them went into drugs. Some of them got their heads down and went into study. Some were easy picking for the terrorists."

Even before Abedi's atrocity, there was evidence of the problem.

Last year, Abdelraouf Abdallah, who had fought in Libya, was jailed for terrorism offences. Police said he had become one of IS' most prolific recruiters in the UK. He was well known to the Abedi family. After a bullet in his spine left him wheelchair-bound in 2012, Abedi's brother Ramadan spent time at Abdallah's bedside in Tripoli.

It is still far from clear when or how Salman Abedi fell in with IS or even if he did. IS has claimed him as a member, but the group's messaging has been uncharacteristically confused.

UK security officials are treading carefully. The connections between the Abedis and Islamist networks in Libya are firmly established, says one western diplomat based in Tripoli. But the interactions between those networks and IS is still unclear.

In some ways, the distinctions as to which group a terrorist like Abedi took directions from are artificial, says Raffaello Pantucci, international director at the think-tank RUSI. "Before you may have had these specific networks, but really the key point now is that, certainly in the UK context, it's all the same pool of people the same radical community that these extremist groups' attack planners go fishing in."

Homegrown terrorists like Abedi, Mr Pantucci says, are less likely to make doctrinaire distinctions about the groups they are affiliated with than the senior figures in those groups directing them. "These kids go to a war zone populated by Islamists, then they come back to the UK, they know bombs, they know how to make bullets," says Mr Bettammer, the former activist. "[Salman Abedi] was in Libya fighting other Muslims. What do you think he's going to do when he's back in the UK?"

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Britain counts cost of ignoring Libyan extremists - The Australian Financial Review

Tunis - Tunisian security forces on Saturday rescued 126 sub-Saharan migrants including seven pregnant women who had been trying to reach Europe from Libya, a Red Crescent official said.

Fishermen had alerted the authorities to the presence of a vessel in distress off Ben Guerdane in southern Tunisia near the border with Libya, Dr Mongi Slim told AFP.

Among the migrants were 48 women, seven of them pregnant, and three children.

Those rescued were mainly from Nigeria, Mali and Gambia, and had set off from Libya, he added.

They were taken to the Tunisian port of Zarzis to be given first aid before later being transferred to nearby Medenine, he said.

People traffickers have exploited the chaos that has ravaged Libya since the 2011 revolution that toppled and killed Moammar Gaddafi to expand their lucrative trade.

Each year they send desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe on the dangerous voyage to Italy, often aboard boats in too poor a condition to complete the trip.

On Friday, more than 3 400 migrants were rescued off Libya, bringing to about 10 000 the total number rescued over four days, Libyan and Italian officials said.

At least 10 bodies were also found by the Italian coastguard.

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Tunisia rescues 126 migrants who set off from Libya - News24

Taormina - G7 nations including France and Britain came under pressure on Saturday from Libya's neighbours to help put out the fires of a conflict that is already causing trouble further afield.

The world's most powerful democracies, at annual summit talks, called in a statement for "inclusive political dialogue and national reconciliation" in Libya - but stopped short of any detailed pledges of collective help.

They had been joined at the summit by African leaders whose countries are all implicated in the migration crisis affecting Europe.

Lawlessness in Libya has facilitated the transit of hundreds of thousands of African migrants embarking on perilous voyages across the Mediterranean.

And it is now directly implicated in European terrorism after a Briton of Libyan descent blew himself up at a Manchester concert, killing 22 people including several children.

"The fight against terrorism (in North Africa) demands that urgent measures be taken to extinguish the Libyan cauldron," Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou told the G7 countries.

Niger lies to Libya's south and Issoufou said a holistic approach was needed to deal with issues surrounding security, economy and extremist ideology.

He urged both the G7 and the United Nations to "devote the means necessary" to set up a rapid reaction force against regional jihadists sought by Niger and other countries in the Sahel region.

France and Britain, two of the G7's top military powers alongside the United States, face particular criticism for helping to topple the Libyan regime of Moammar Gaddafi in 2011 without planning sufficiently for the power vacuum that ensued as the country plunged into chaos.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, at the G7, said the Manchester suicide bomber's links to Libya "undoubtedly shine a spotlight on this largely ungoverned space on the edge of Europe".

"So we must redouble our support for a UN-led effort that brings all the parties to the negotiating table and reduces the threat of terror from that region," she said on Friday.

In a meeting on Saturday on the G7 margins with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi underlined the need for collective action on Libya.

The security challenge, in particular dealing with the proliferation of armed groups, would take "long months to stabilise", Essebsi said, according to a French official.

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G7 urged to douse Libyan inferno - News24

The father and a brother of suspected Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi have been detained by security personnel in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, according to witnesses and officials.

Ramadan Abedi, at his home before being detained in Tripoli, Libya, on May 24.

Photographer: Ghaith Shennib/Bloomberg

Three vehicles drove up to the Abedi home Wednesday evening and several men wearing uniform, some of them masked, detained Ramadan Abedi, the alleged attackers father, and two other unidentified men in the street. It wasnt immediately possible to reach a spokesman for the United-Nations backed government in Tripoli for comment.

Separately, security forces announced they had Salman Abedis younger brother, Hesham, in custody. In a statement, theSpecial Deterrence Force said he had admitted to having links with Islamic State and being in the U.K. at the time the Manchester attack was being planned. The statement said Hesham had received money from his elder sibling. The force couldnt immediately be contacted.

The 22 people killed in the Manchester bombing included elementary school students, with the youngest just eight years old. Of the 59 wounded, many were children under 16. The U.K.s terrorism threat has been raised from severe to critical -- the highest level -- for the first time since 2007, meaning another attack may be imminent. The army will be deployed to guard national sites under police review as campaigning for the June 8 general election resumes on Thursday. Authorities fear Abedi wasnt working alone.

Ramadan Abedi was detained hours after he described in an interview with Bloomberg his disbelief over newshis 22-year-old son had carried out the U.K.s deadliest act of terrorism in more than a decade. He said the two had last week spoke about meeting in Tripoli during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

When asked if he had been contacted by British authorities about his son, who was reportedly known to the U.K. security services before Mondays bombing of a pop concert in Manchester, northwest England,Ramadan Abedi answered No.

The fasting month starts this weekend. I was really shocked when I saw the news, I still dont believe it,he said in Libyas capital.

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My son was as religious as any child who opens his eyes in a religious family, said Ramadan Abedi, who arrived in the U.K. from his native Libya in the 1990s and stayed until 2008. As we were discussing news of similar attacks earlier, he was always against those attacks, saying theres no religious justification for them. I dont understand how hed have become involved in an attack that led to the killing of children.

Salman Abedi made frequent trips to visit his family in Libya, his father said, and was in the country last week, where he had told his mother he intended to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

My son was supposed to be with us for Ramadan, but he told us he was going to do Umrah, via the U.K., and thats why he left,he said, using the term for a lesser pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year.

Until now my son is a suspect, and the authorities havent come up with a final conclusion, Ramadan Abedi, who was born in 1965, said in the interview, insisting on his sons innocence. Every father knows his son and his thoughts, my son does not have extremist thoughts.

Abedi was first revealed as the attacker on Tuesday by CBS in the U.S., prompting U.K. police to put out a statement saying speculation was unhelpful and potentially damaging to the investigation. The U.K. later confirmed his identity. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd later criticized U.S. officials for the initial leaks in an usually blunt rebuke.

On Wednesday, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told a television interviewer that Abedi had traveled to Syria and had Islamic State links.

Islamic State claimed the Manchester attack in a short message in Arabic and Englishposted on the online messaging service Telegram and picked up by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites. It did not give any details about the attacker, or how the blast was carried out, leading some analysts to question the extent of the militant groups involvement.

Ramadan Abedi said he served as a security officer during Muammar Qaddafis rule before being accused by the regime of links to extremist groups, accusations he strongly denies. He left for the U.K. in 1993, returning to Libya in 2008, where he was joined by most of his family after the ouster of Qaddafi in the 2011 revolution. Salman and one brother stayed in the U.K. to finish their studies.

Libya descended into turmoil after the NATO-backed uprising that ousted Qaddafi in 2011, with myriad armed groups -- some of them Islamist -- and two administrations vying for influence.

I was working with homeland security, under Qaddafi, the father said. I know the dangers of those extremist groups, and I was raising my children to make them aware of those groups.

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Father and Brother of Manchester Bomber Arrested in Libya ...

Egypt's president says his air force struck bases in Libya where militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained, but gave no details.

Senior officials said that the bases are ineastern Libya. They said the warplanes on Friday targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al-Qaeda.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in Egypt, wherever they may be. He also directly appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

In a televised address just hours after at least 28 Coptic Christians, including two children, were killed by militants south of Cairo, el-Sissi said "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

He also repeated calls that countries thatfinance, train or arm extremists be punished.

In the attack Friday south of Cairo, masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians. The gunmen also wounded22, officials said.

The attack happened while the bus was travelling to the St. Samuel Monastery in Minyaprovince, about 220 kilometressouth of the Egyptian capital, health officials told the MENAnews agency.

Health officials, citing eyewitnesses, said there were between eight and 10 attackers dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks.The victims were travelling from the nearby province of Bani Suief to visit the monastery, which isreachable only by a short, unpaved route that veers off the main highway.

Arab TV stations showed images of a damaged bus along a roadside, many of its windows shattered. Ambulances were parked around it as bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

Local officials said the dead included two little girls, ages twoand four.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack,which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month ofRamadan, though it had all the hallmarks of Egypt's affiliate of ISIS.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

Following the attack south of Cairo by masked gunmen on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, their relatives grieve at Abu Garnous Cathedral in Minya. (Amr Nabil/Associated Press)

Presidentel-Sissi called for a meeting with top aides to discuss the attack. The government is expected to tighten security around churches, monasteries, schools and annual pilgrimages to remote Christian sites across the country. Earlier this week it blocked access to nearly two dozen websites it said were sympathetic to militants or spreading their ideology.

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilize the country.

"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.

Egyptian authorities have been fighting ISIS-linked militants who have waged an insurgency, mainly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula, though attacks have taken place also on the mainland. Egypt's Coptic Christians have emerged as a top target of ISIS.

Coptic Christians were the target of twin bombings that tore through two Egyptian churches last month killing dozens and wounding some 100 others as worshippers were marking Palm Sunday. ISISclaimed responsibility for both attacks.

Another bombing at the country's main Coptic cathedral in Cairo left 25 people dead in December.

A nun cries as she stands at the scene inside Cairo's Coptic cathedral, following a bombing, on Dec. 11. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of Egypt's majority Muslim population.

Late last month, Pope Francis visited Egypt, in part to show his support for Christians of this Muslim-majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants.

Following the Pope's visit, ISIS vowed to escalate the attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they are targets for the group's followers.

The surge in violence has added to the formidable challenges facing el-Sissi's government as it struggles to contain the insurgency while pushing ahead with an ambitious and politically sensitive reform program to revive the country's ailing economy. The program has sent the cost of food and services soaring.

"The growing number of these terror attacks is not at all reassuring," Father Rafic Greiche, spokespersonfor the Egyptian Catholic Church, told a local TV station.

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gunmen kill 28 Coptic Christians in Egypt - CBC.ca