The chief imam of the mosque where Manchester bomber Salman Abedi worshipped fought with militants in Libya, it was reported last night.

Mustafa Graf, 46, appeared alongside elders at Didsbury Mosque at a press conference on Wednesday, condemning the atrocity which killed 22 people and distancing themselves from Abedi.

Mr Graf admits being in Libya during the 2011 revolution and that he was captured by forces from the Gaddafi regime.

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Elders: Mustafa Graf, second from the left, front row, in a brown jacket, on Wednesday

He claimed he was there to help his parents and brothers flee the fighting, but in a video report shot by the French AFP news agency, a British fighter named Mostafa Abdallah Graf describes preparations for battle against Gaddafi’s forces at Beni Walid, near Tripoli.

Interviewed in front of militants loading large bombs and other munitions, he is wearing a desert combat uniform and sunglasses.

In Arabic, he says: ‘These munitions are from various cities in Libya. They are for tanks, heavy artillery and missiles. Thank God everything is ready – we’re just waiting for orders to attack.’

Father-of-four Mr Graf, who fled Libya in 1991 and was an outspoken critic of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, was twice captured by the dictator’s forces after travelling to Libya in February 2011. He said he went to help his elderly father, who is suffering from cancer, his mother and his brothers.

But days before setting off, he praised revolutionaries’ bravery and his delight that Gaddafi’s regime could come to an end.

Mustafa Abdullah Graf, pictured here on the right, fighting against Gaddafi in Libya in 2011

There is no suggestion that Mr Graf was involved in jihadi groups operating as part of the revolution. Moderate rebel groups during the 2011 revolution were supported and armed by the West.

Mr Graf, from Chorlton, did not respond to requests for comment about his time in Libya.

On Thursday night’s BBC Question Time programme, an audience member said he was given an ‘anti-West’ leaflet at Didsbury Mosque, which said ‘modesty, shame and honour have no place in Western civilisation’.

But another audience member who said she had attended the mosque for decades, said the handout was ‘not official’ and argued that the mosque had a ‘multi-cultural community’.