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The Manchester Arena suicide bomber was rescued from Libya by the British Navy three years before he killed 22 people.

Salman Abedi was 19 when he was carried to safety and among 110 evacuees on HMS Enterprise in August 2014.

He was rescued in war-torn Tripoli with his younger brother Hashem and taken to Malta where he boarded a flight back to the UK.

Three years later, he detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb in the arena following a concert by the American pop singer Ariana Grande.

He killed 22 people, including seven children.

A Government source told the Daily Mail : "For this man to commit such an atrocity on UK soil after we rescued him from Libya was an act of utter betrayal."

Abedi was being monitored by security services when he travelled to Libya on a gap year from Manchester College, but his case was closed a month before his rescue.

(Image: PA)

The brothers travelled back and forth between Manchester and Tripoli because their parents had returned to Libya.

The Anderson review into the Manchester attack found that the decision to close Abedi's case as a "subject of interest" was sound, based on the information available to security services at the time.

(Image: MEN Media)

A Government spokesman confirmed to the Daily Mirror Abedi's name was on a list of stranded citizens handed to the crew in charge of the evacuation in 2014.

Hashem Abedi is being held in jail in Libya by a militia group, but the British Government has requested his extradition to face trial for his involvement in the attack.

The request has so far been refused.

A Government spokesman said: "During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British nationals and their dependants."