The brothers and father of the alleged Manchester bomber were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to multiple news outlets.
Hashim Abedi, 20, the brother of suspected bomber Salman Abedi, 22, was arrested in Tripoli on Tuesday as he was receiving transferred cash from Salman, the Associated Press reported.
A Libyan anti-terror task force arrested Hashim Abedi, the news agency reported, adding that he was “aware of all the details of the terrorist attack.”
The same force said Hashim Abedi told them that both he and his brother belonged to the so-called Islamic State. The group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Authorities have identified Salman Abedi as the suspected bomber who killed 22 people and injured dozens more during an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday night. He died during the attack.
The blast ripped through the foyer of the Manchester Arena around 10:35 p.m. local time, as concert attendees were leaving the venue. As the explosion went off videos on social media showed panic and confusion as thousands of people fled.
“We ran and people were screaming around us and pushing on the stairs to go outside and people were falling down, girls were crying, and we saw these women being treated by paramedics having open wounds on their legs … it was just chaos,” Sebastian Diaz, a 19-year-old attendee, told Reuters.
Hashim Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi, was detained in Tripoli on Wednesday. Before his arrest, he told news outlets that his son was innocent.
“I don’t believe that it was him,” Ramadan Abedi told the New York Times. “His ideas and his ideology were not like that. He was born and raised in Britain. He’s a British citizen and he does not hold such ideologies.”
Another brother, Ismail Abedi, was arrested in England on Tuesday.
Authorities have been investigating whether Abedi was working as part of a “network” that planned and executed the attack, according to the Times. British authorities have increased security at strategic points in the country in light of the attack.
