UK bomber pleaded 'forgive me'

The suspect in the deadly Manchester concert bombing was driven by what he saw as unjust treatment of Arabs in Britain, a relative says.

Speaking on Thursday on condition of anonymity the woman said 22-year-old Salman Abedi made a final phone call in which he pleaded: "Forgive me."

He was particularly upset by the killing last year of a Muslim friend whose death he believed went unnoticed by "infidels" in the UK, she said.

"Why was there no outrage for the killing of an Arab and a Muslim in such a cruel way?" she asked.

"Rage was the main reason," for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday, she said, speaking by telephone from Libya.

The new insight into Abedi's motivation came as Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids and the investigation extended across Europe into Libya, where most of the suspected bomber's family lived.

The number of arrests in the UK ticked up to eight as British Transport Police said armed officers would begin patrols on some trains because of an increased threat of terrorism.

An emerging portrait of the bomber remained complicated by competing assessments over whether Abedi held views that had sparked concern before the bombing.

Akram Ramadan, a member of the Libyan community in Manchester who attends the city's Didsbury Mosque, said Abedi was banned from the mosque after he allegedly interrupted an imam's anti-Islamic State sermon.

"He stood up and started calling the imam - 'You are talking bollocks,"' Ramadan said. "And he gave a good stare, a threatening stare into the imam's eyes."

Mohammed Fadl, a community leader, rejected that account. While Abedi's family was well-known in Manchester, Abedi himself did not attend many gatherings, Fadl said.

However, Fadl said he had heard Abedi's father took his son's passport away over concerns about his ties to alleged extremists and criminals.

Ahmed bin Salem, a spokesman for the Special Deterrent Force in Libya, said Abedi placed his final call to both his mother and a brother. Abedi's relative said he had spoken with his brother only, asking that his message be relayed to his mother.

"He was giving farewell," bin Salem said.

Abedi's relative said the suspected bomber was pained by the killing of Abdel-Wahab Hafidah, an 18-year-old who news reports say was chased by a group of men, run over and stabbed in the neck in Manchester in May 2016.

"They wouldn't let you share bread with them," she said Abedi told her. "They are unjust to the Arabs."

Bin Salem said Abedi's mother told investigators her son left for the UK four days before the attack after spending a month in Libya. Based on the account from a younger brother, investigators think Abedi used the internet to learn how to make a bomb and "seek victory for the Islamic State," bin Salem said.