POLICE have officially named Manchester suicide bomber Salman Ramadan Abedi, 22, as his links to Libya come under increasing scrutiny. He is believed to have been part of a wider network now being probed by security forces.

Born in Manchester in 1994, Abedi’s parents are Libyan and fled to the UK after opposing Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

His father, Ramadan Abedi, is believed to have taken his son to Libya in his school holidays when he was 16 to fight against Gaddafi.

After the toppling of the dictator, Abedi’s parents returned to Libya. His father and 20-year-old brother, Hashem, are currently being held for questioning by Libyan security forces. Abedi stayed in the UK to attend Manchester College then Salford University but dropped out and worked in a bakery.

A neighbour said he recently made a three-week trip to Libya just before the bombing which killed 22 people on Monday, including Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra.

Abedi’s sister, Jomana, who lives in Manchester, said she thought her brother had reacted to US-led air strikes in the Middle East.

“He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge,” she said.

WHAT IS THE LIBYAN CONNECTION?

MANCHESTER is home to one of the biggest Libyan communities in Britain and has been the base for several Islamist extremists with links to Libya and Syria.

Gaddafi opponents in the outlawed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) lived near Abedi in Manchester. One was Abd al-Baset Azzouz, an expert bomb-maker, who left the UK to join an extremist network in Libya led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor as head of al-Qaeda.

It’s thought both French and UK intelligence agencies knew Abedi had recently travelled to Syria. In recent months Abedi told friends he believed in dying for a cause and made hardline statements about Libya and suicide bombings.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN LIBYA?

LIBYA has been in chaos since the end of Gaddafi’s 42-year rule.

Under foreign control for hundreds of years, Libya became independent in 1951 just after oil was found. Gaddafi became leader in 1969 after a coup but relations with the West deteriorated in 1981 when the US shot down two Libyan planes.

The UK broke off diplomatic relations with the country in 1984 after a British policewoman was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London.

Two years later, the US bombed homes in Benghazi and Tripoli as well as military facilities, killing 101 people, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter, in retaliation for the alleged involvement of Libya in the bombing of a disco in Berlin used by US troops.

In December 1988 came the Lockerbie bombing, when a Pan Am airliner exploded over the small Scottish town, killing 270 people.

Libyan agents were blamed for the atrocity and sanctions were imposed by the UN on Libya to force Gaddafi to hand over two suspects.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

In 2001 a special Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands found Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi guilty, and sentenced him to life in jail.

Sanctions were lifted after Libya took responsibility for the bombing and agreed £2bn in compensation. US energy companies returned in 2005 after Libya agreed to pay £27m for the Berlin bombing.

In 2010 BP began drilling off the Libyan coast amid claims the oil giant lobbied for the release of the Lockerbie bomber from his Scottish jail a year earlier.

The Arab Spring in 2011 inspired revolts that overthrew Gaddafi and since then the country has descended into chaos.

HOW UNSTABLE IS IT?

Libya is now a springboard for refugees to get to Europe and there are growing concerns over the rise of Islamic militancy there.

The rebel leadership council which took over in 2011 could not control the many armed militia groups and handed over power to the General National Congress in 2012. This was replaced in an election two years later by the Council of Representatives which relocated to Tobruk in the east, leaving Tripoli in the control of militias. Subsequent turmoil let Daesh extremists take over coastal cities including Sirte and Derna.

A new unity government brokered by the UN has moved into heavily guarded headquarters in Tripoli’s naval base. Neither Tripoli nor the Tobruk parliament has recognised its authority.