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The Manchester Arena bomb attack was planned over several months, since December last year, according to reports.

Salman Abedi had been under surveillance in Libya more than a month before the atrocity which left 22 dead, security officials in the country told the BBC.

Investigators in Tripoli have reportedly highlighted a lack of security co-operation with the UK, and say it has to developed to stop further incidents.

Officials in Libya said that they were watching Abedi from when he arrived in the country, and his father Ramadan and brother Hashem were also under surveillance, it was said.

Salman apparently spent several weeks quietly with his family in Tripoli before returning to Britain and detonating explosives at the Arena on May 22.

On a daily basis Ramadan and Hashem Abedi continue to be interrogated by Libya's Special Deterrence Force, the BBC report.

Special Deterrence Force spokesman Ahmed bin Salem reportedly said the attack was being planned as far back as last December.

He said the force had important information about Abedi's contacts in the UK and Libya.

But Libyan security teams reportedly say they co-operate better with the CIA than they do with London.

According to the report, a senior figure in the UN-backed, Tripoli government wants far closer intelligence sharing to stop any further attacks.

A Libyan security official reportedly claimed that Hashem admitted in detention that back in 2015 he and Salman joined Islamic State.

They added that Hashem bought parts for the bomb while in the UK but left the country at the same time as his brother, who went on to carry out the Manchester attack on his return.

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Salman Abedi 'was under surveillance in Libya more than a month before the Manchester Arena attack' - Manchester Evening News

BBC News

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi case: ICC calls for arrest of ex-Libya leader's son BBC News The International Criminal Court (ICC) has called for the arrest and surrender of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who was released by a militia in Libya last week after six years in jail. The son of late leader Col Muammar Gaddafi is wanted for alleged crimes ...

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Saif al-Islam Gaddafi case: ICC calls for arrest of ex-Libya leader's son - BBC News

Saif al-Islam in Zintan after his 2011 capture. Photograph: Ammar El-Darwish/AP

A Libyan militia says it has freed Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the countrys late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, after more than five years in captivity.

The Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Brigade, based in Zintan, said it released Saif under an amnesty law passed last year by the eastern-based parliament.

We have decided to liberate Saif al-Islam Muammar Gaddafi. He is now free and has left the city of Zintan, the militia said in a statement.

However, it is unclear whether Saif has left Zintan, and his freedom in Libya is partial. While the eastern parliament in Tobruk, to which Zintan is aligned, says he is a free man, Tripolis UN-backed government still considers him a war criminal, after a court sentenced him to death, in absentia, in 2015 for crimes during the revolution.

If Saif leaves Libya, he may also face arrest on an indictment from the international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His British lawyer, Karim Khan QC, said he was unable to confirm or deny reports of Saifs freedom, but added he was in regular contact with his client, last visiting him in the autumn.

I met him in Zintan and Ive been in contact with him in relation to this issue, he said. He was in good physical health, I had lunch with him in Zintan and sat for several hours.

Saif al-Islam, whose name means sword of Islam, was once considered heir apparent to his late father. Before the 2011 Arab spring revolution he lived in a 10m mansion in Hampstead, London, was awarded a controversial doctorate from the London School of Economics and had contacts including the billionaire hedge fund investor Nat Rothschild, Labour peer Peter Mandelson and architect Norman Foster.

He had no formal job under his fathers regime, but before the revolution had called for democratic reforms. During the uprising, however, he demanded harsh measures against rebel forces.

When Libyan rebel forces, backed by Nato airstrikes, captured Tripoli in late 2011 he fled south, and was captured in the Sahara by the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Brigade.

Saif could potentially emerge as a political actor in Libyas chaotic and changing fabric, with tribes who formally backed his father likely to support him, along with some militias who once fought against his father.

The country has been ravaged by civil war, with Tobruk forces in recent weeks capturing key airbases in the interior.

Saifs release comes a year after Tobruk forces allowed his mother, Safia, to visit eastern Libya, and follows a ruling in March by the European court of justice to lift a travel ban on Saifs sister Aisha, who lives with her mother in Oman.

Two of Saifs brothers, Mutassim and Khamis, died in the revolution, while a third, Hannibal, lives in Lebanon. His youngest brother, Saadi, is detained in Tripoli awaiting trial on war crimes charges.

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Gaddafi son Saif al-Islam freed by Libyan militia - The Guardian

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Manchester bombing was planned for months, Libya says - BBC News - BBC News

A United Nations report concludes that arms have continued to be illicitly transferred to and from Libya on a regular basis.

It states that material entering Libya has been of an increasingly sophisticated nature. External assistance to armed groups has also increased, with fighting groups expanding their air forces, which have been used in attacks against other armed groups and each other, the Libya Herald has reported.

The conclusions were made in the UN Libyan Experts Panel final report presented to the Security Council released last week.

Assessing the UN-imposed arms embargo on Libya, the 299-page report said arms have continued to be illicitly transferred to and from Libya on a regular basis.

While outflows have continued to be moderate, consisting mainly of small arms and light weapons, materiel entering Libya has been of an increasingly sophisticated nature. External assistance to armed groups in terms of direct support, training and technical assistance has also increased.

At least two of the armed groups operating in Libya have expanding air forces, which have been used in attacks against other armed groups and each other, the UN report stated.

The panel reviewed commercial satellite imagery of relevant Libyan airports and airfields in order to investigate the development of air capabilities.

The political process that the exceptions to the arms embargo were designed to support has not developed in the manner anticipated, as the relationship between armed groups and political entities remains transactional and transitional, added the report.

The Government of National Accord [GNA] has not provided information on the structures of security forces under its control, nor has there been any demonstration of such control.

Such issues highlight the need for the continuance of the arms embargo with a clear identification of those armed and security forces that can legitimately benefit from exceptions and exemption requests.

The panel continued to investigate deliveries of weapons and ammunition made during the revolution of 2011.

Insurgents on the western front depended on transfers from Benghazi over the sea route to Tunisia and onward to the Nafusa Mountains.

After a meeting between the late General Abd Al Fattah Younis and foreign representatives in mid-April 2011, it was decided to organise a major delivery to the western front, said the panel.

The panel collected over eight accounts of a delivery by sea, paid for by Qatar, of about 40 tonnes of military equipment to Zarzis, allegedly escorted by the Tunisian armed forces to the Dhehiba-Wazin border post with Libya.

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Illegal arms continue to flow into Libya - Citizen