How Manchester bomber Salman Abedi used jihadist tentacles spread across Europe and into the Middle East to plot terror attack carnage
THE investigation into what turned a studious schoolboy from Manchester into a suicide bomb killer involves police forces and intelligence services spread across the globe.
In the year leading up to Monday night's horror attack, Salman Abedi is known to have travelled between the UK, Libya, and Germany and is even feared to have slipped into the ISIS hotbed of Syria.
Despite repeated warnings from family and friends that he'd been radicalised, the 22-year-old was not on any international terror alerts or watch lists, and his movements in the UK were not monitored.
Those investigating his murderous pop concert attack - which left 22 dead - are now trying to piece together exactly where and when Abedi was recruited by extremists.
Although he is known to have attended terror training camps in war-torn Syria between 2011-2012, it's believed his contacts with ISIS are likely to be a lot nearer to home.
Just four days before Monday night's attack he was spotted in Germany.
Airport records show Abedi flew home to Manchester from Düsseldorf just before carrying out the bombing.
It was not his first trip to the country as he previously flew from Frankfurt to the UK in 2015.
Security services now fear he met up with radical Islamists in Germany.
Scotland Yard has informed German colleagues that Abedi trained with jihadists in Syria, and there are concerns he may have met with like-minded extremists in Germany on his visits.
“The scene is closely intertwined internationally,” said an unnamed senior officer in Germany’s secret service.
“We need to clarify whether Abedi met people in Germany he had previously met with in Syria.”
Düsseldorf has a big extremist problem, and Anis Amri, the Berlin Christmas market attacker, was in contact with radical preachers from the surrounding state of North Rhine-Westphalia before his bloody attack which left 12 dead and 60 injured.
German authorities currently have no idea what Abedi was doing in their country or who he may have met with, according to official reports.
Although the authorities believe he is likely to be linked to a sophisticated ISIS cell operating in Europe, it is believed he was originally radicalised on an earlier trip about six years ago to see his family in Libya.
Abedi's first trip to Libya was reported to be in 2011, at the time he was described by his neighbours as a "normal friendly lad" with a love of football.
Within a year things are said to have changed dramatically.
Neighbours told how he soon become withdrawn and had taken to chanting Islamic prayer loudly in the street.
It was about this time he dropped out of Salford University where he was studying for a degree in business management to work at a local bakers.
He is also reported to have become close to two well-known ISIS recruiters operating near his south Manchester home.
The bomber also lived just a stone’s throw from the school attended by notorious “terror twins'” and down the road from a top ISIS firebrand.
Mohammed Saeed El-Saeiti, the imam at the Didsbury Mosque, remembers Abedi transformation into a dangerous extremist.
"Salman showed me the face of hate after my speech on ISIS," said the imam. "I could tell this person does not like me."
The cold-blooded killer is known to have returned from a three-week trip to Libya just last week.
Abedi's trips to his family's homeland are now subject to scrutiny including any possible links to jihadists.
His parents, mother Samia Tabbal and father Ramadan Abedi, a security officer, are Libyan-born refugees who fled to the UK to escape Gaddafi.
It is thought they returned in 2011 following Gaddafi’s downfall.
Abedi has an older brother Ismail Abedi, who was born in Westminster in 1993, a younger brother Hashim Abedi, and a sister Jomana, whose Facebook profile suggests she is from Tripoli and lives in Manchester.
She reportedly claims her brother was turned to terror after watching American bombs falling on children in Syria - confirming his links with the ISIS heartland.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, said Abedi had recently returned from Libya and the nature of his attack suggested he may have had support.
“It was more sophisticated than some of the horrific events that we have seen in the past or in other parts of Europe so people are reasonably wondering whether he did this on his own,” she told the BBC.
“When this operation is over, we will want to look at his background and what happened, how he became radicalised and what support he might have been given.”
In the hours before the attack Abedi was also seen boarding a train in London - sparking fears he may have been receiving his final orders ahead of his suicide bomb attack.
He used a backpack bomb packed with homemade explosives and nails for the attack – the same method used for Isis’ bombings at Brussels Airport and Molenbeek metro station last year.
He is reported to have put the bag down in the foyer between Manchester Arena and Victoria station shortly before it detonated amid Ariana Grande fans pouring out of the concert.
In total eight men are in custody in the UK following the attack, including Abedi's older brother Ismail, 23. Abedi's younger brother Hashem, 20, was held by special forces linked to the interior ministry in the Libyan capital Tripoli, as was their father, Ramadan.
The terror threat level in the UK has since been raised to critical - for the first time a decade.