
The Manchester suicide bomber was ordered to move back to Libya by his father who was worried about him getting involved with gangs in England, MailOnline can reveal.

Salman and his younger brother Hashem were summoned to North Africa and had their passports confiscated by their concerned father Ramadan who was worried one of them would stab a rival gang member.

But the 22-year-old British-born jihadi tricked his mother into returning his passport by telling her he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Instead, he flew back to Manchester via Istanbul and Duesseldorf where he massacred 22 and injured at least 119 in Monday's Manchester Arena atrocity.

Family friend Abdel, 52, told MailOnline from Tripoli: 'Ramadan told me there had been some problems in England between his boys and some tough gangs and he was concerned for the safety of his sons.

'He told me "I was afraid he might get stabbed or that he might stab someone" so the children stopped going to school and the family returned to Tripoli.'

It comes as security services build up a picture of the complex family, who flitted between Manchester and Libya, a hotbed of terror and the emergence of ISIS, for 25 years.

Tentacles of terror: Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi criss-crossed between his family's home in Tripoli, where his father, Ramadan, right, lives and his home in Manchester. His father left Libya in 1991 to flee the regime of Muammar Gaddafi

Chaotic childhood: The boys' parents arrived in the UK in 1992 and first lived in London where their eldest son Ismail, right, an IT consultant, was born in 1993. Salman's younger brother Hashem, arrested in Tripoli, left, was born in Manchester in 1997

For more than two decades Ramadan is said to have plotted and obsessed with the overthrow of the man he hated beyond all others, the brutal Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

It was a hatred that saw the 51-year-old airport security guard flee his homeland, set-up base in Saudi Arabia, seek – and gain – asylum in Britain and eventually return as part of the armed revolution that overthrew Gaddafi.

The obsession saw him and his family criss-cross countries, brought him into contact with extremists and jihadis, allegedly become a one-time member of an Al Qaeda-linked organisation that was to be outlawed by Britain and the United States, preach at a mosque in Manchester and end-up as a senior security official within one of the factions now competing for control of Libya.

Investigators pouring over the details of Ramadan's life say it is clear his extraordinary lifeline provided a 'fertile ground' in which his children could have grown up learning of extremism and revolution.

'The more you delve into the father's background the more you see of the potential exposure of his boys to extremism and revolution,' a former intelligence officer told MailOnline today.

Last night Ramadan was in custody in the Libyan capital Tripoli as was another son Hashem, 20, while the oldest son, Ismail, 23, was being held in Manchester as part of the investigation into Salman's murder of 22 concert-goers at the Manchester arena on Monday night.

Incredibly, before his arrest, Ramadan had claimed Salman was innocent despite Greater Manchester Police confirming his son's identity.

Links to Al-Qaeda: For more than two decades Ramadan is said to have plotted and obsessed with the overthrow of the man he hated beyond all others, the brutal Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. It was a hatred that saw him flee his homeland, set-up base in Saudi Arabia, gain – asylum in Britain and eventually return as part of the armed revolution that overthrew Gaddafi

Gang worries: Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi, pictured far right on holiday in Libya, was ordered to move back to the North African country by his father worried about him getting involved with gangs in England six weeks ago

Radicalisation threat: Investigators pouring over the details of Ramadan's life say it is clear that his extraordinary lifeline provided a 'fertile ground' in which his children like Hashem, left, and Ismail, centre, could have been exposed to extremism

MOTHER OF SUICIDE BOMBER WAS 'NUCLEAR SCIENTIST' Bomber Salman Abedi's mother is a nuclear scientist, a family friend revealed last night. Samia Tabbal, 50, graduated from Tripoli university 'top of her class', it was said. It also emerged she is a close friend of the wife of former Al Qaeda commander Abu Anas Al-Libi who once featured on the FBI most wanted terrorists list, with a £20million bounty. He spent five years in Manchester, having won asylum in Britain in 1995. He was later suspected of helping to plot the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which killed a total of 224. Al-Libi returned to Libya in 2000, and was captured by US Special Forces in Tripoli in 2013. He died in custody two years later. His wife Umm Abdul Rahman said she went to college in Tripoli with Abedi's mother, who studied nuclear engineering, and that the women had lived together in Manchester. Another friend said: '[Abedi's] mother is very intelligent. She told my wife she was a nuclear science engineer … She graduated top of her class from Tripoli University.' Advertisement

A former intelligence officer told MailOnline: 'It appears that Ramadan's life revolved at several points around toppling Gaddafi and deeply conservative, some would say radical, beliefs.

'His international bases and lifestyle allowed Salman to travel freely without apparent suspicion and have access, possibly without the father's knowledge, to ISIS or Al-Qaeda supporters, fighters and recruiters.'

He added: 'The family's life journey and their travels are now the subject of forensic scrutiny. From what I have seen revolution, extremists and fundamentalism appear to be dotted through it all.'

For Ramadan Abedi and his wife Samia Tabbal, that journey began when they fled their home in the capital Tripoli in 1991 after Ramadan was arrested and accused of using his position with the country's Internal Security service to tip off opponents of anti-Gaddafi Islamist groups about pending police raids.

The pair set up home first in Saudi Arabia in the period known as the Islamic Awakening when Arab and other Muslim volunteers went to Afghanistan to 'liberate' the country from Soviet occupation.

The most notorious of this Mujahideen holy army being Osama Bin Laden.

By 1992 the couple had arrived in the UK where they applied for asylum explaining they opposed Gaddafi and would be arrested if they returned.

Setting up home in London the couple had their first child, naming him Ismail Ramadan Abedi, before moving shortly afterwards to Manchester where they became part of the UK's largest Libyan community, many of who also loathed Gaddafi.

Ramadan took a job as an airport security officer while Samia looked after the children.

The couple had two more children, a girl Jomana, and a third son Hashem, and later moved into the semi-detached housing association property in Elsmore Road that was raided by armed police on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile in 1994, Ramadan is understood to have joined the anti-Gaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, whose aim was not only to get rid of the dictator but to establish an Islamic state.

Founded by Libyans who had fought in Afghanistan against Soviet forces, it had close links to Al-Qaeda.

It put Ramadan in contact with many considered by the West Islamic radicals and jihadis.

In one of the many twists, his wife Samia, who graduated from Tripoli University top of her class in nuclear engineering, befriended Umm Abdul Rahman, the wife of Al Qaeda commander Abu Anas Al-Libi.

The convicted terrorist and his family were granted asylum in Britain in 1995 and finding sanctuary in Manchester the families of Samia Abedi and Umm Abdul Rahman remained close.

Accused of plotting the 1998 Al-Qaeda bombings of the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya which slaughtered 224, the FBI put a £20 million bounty on Abu Anas Al-Libi's head.

The Al-Qaeda commander was finally captured by US Special Forces in 2013, more than 12 years after he had returned to Libya to take up arms against the Gaddafi regime.

By then, Ramadan Abedi was also back living in Tripoli.

Home life: Salman, pictured, who dropped out of a business course at Salford University after a year in 2014, remained in Manchester after his father travelled to Libya to join the armed struggle against Gaddafi during the 2011Arab-spring uprising

He is reported to have returned to Libya first in 2008, with the help of the country's Homeland Return Facilitation Committee, after renouncing the LIFG.

Although the LIFG disbanded, friends of Ramadan Abedi say he belongs to the Salafi Jihadi movement, the most extreme sect of Salafism and from which Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group hail.

Reports claim the father travelled to Libya to join the armed struggle against Gaddafi during the Arab-spring uprising in 2011.

Akram Ramadan, 49, who fought with Ramadan Abedi in the Libyan revolution, said he was passionate about overthrowing a regime that had 'displaced thousands of his brethren, It was something we all felt we had to do.

'Some were more radical than others but we all shared a common cause.'

Neighbours have told how Salman Abedi's cheered and raised a Libyan flag in his garden when the popular uprising against Gaddafi began.

Last movements: The bomber, 23, pictured on CCTV at the Arndale shopping centre carrying a backpack three days before the attack, was ordered to move back to Libya by his father who was worried he was involved with gangs in Manchester

Trick: Salman, pictured putting out the bins, had his passport confiscated in Libya but tricked his mother into giving it back before he flew back to Manchester via Istanbul and Duesseldorf four days before the massacred that killed 22 people

It is clear however that Ramadan Abedi returned to Tripoli in 2011 where he and his wife have set up home in a white washed villa set behind a large iron gate and wall in the affluent Zawiyat al Dahmani suburb.

Since Abedi's return, his children have been frequent visitors to Libya.

Son Salman has been pictured on the beach, while younger brother Hashem can be seen handling automatic weapons.

Salman Abedi is believed to have used these trips to Libya to also travel to Syria, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb claimed, citing information provided by British intelligence to their counterparts in Paris.

The bomber's sister has claimed that seeing 'children dying everywhere' in Syria had prompted him to launch his suicide mission.

'He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge,' Jomana Abedi told the Wall Street Journal.

'I think he saw children – Muslim children – dying everywhere, and wanted revenge.'

The bomber used the cover of a wedding to travel to Libya three months ago, it has emerged and returned just days before he set off his devastating device at the Manchester Arena on Monday night.

The British-born Muslim passed through Duesseldorf, a hotbed of radical Islam – four days before his suicide attack.

And German intelligence have discovered the killer visiting the banking centre Frankfurt in 2015, which is also home to a number of jihadists.

He was not on any German watchlists or subject to any international manhunt appeals, explaining why he was not detained at Düsseldorf airport, which he had flown to from Istanbul.

A Turkish security official also said that authorities there had not been made aware to look out for Abedi.

A senior Turkish official told the Financial Times the government in Ankara sent a file on Abedi to the British authorities yesterday morning.

He refused to discuss the details of the communication.

A senior Whitehall source confirmed Salman was 'one of a larger pool of former subjects of interest whose risk remained subject to review' by the security service and its partners.

MI5 is managing around 500 active investigations involving some 3,000 subjects of interest at any one time, the source said, who added eighteen terror plots have been foiled since 2013.

This included five since the Westminster attack in March.