London (CNN) The Manchester suicide bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017 had been rescued from the civil war in Libya by Britain's Royal Navy just three years earlier.

Salman Abedi, who was born in Manchester, was 19 when he was evacuated from the Libyan capital of Tripoli by HMS Enterprise in August 2014, along with his younger brother Hashem and more than 100 other British citizens.

The ship took the passengers to Malta where they boarded a flight to the UK.

In a statement a British government spokesperson confirmed the rescue: "During the deteriorating security situation in Libya in 2014, Border Force officials were deployed to assist with the evacuation of British nationals and their dependents."

The government at the time advised British nationals to leave Libya as a result of heavy violence in Tripoli and large-scale military offensives against Islamist groups, the statement added.

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