Terror Network Arrest: Student Pilot Detained In Manchester Bombing

British police Monday arrested a student pilot in their effort to round up a terror network linked to Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi.

The 23-year-old suspect, described as Libyan, was arrested in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex, more than 260 miles from where Abedi set off his bomb, killing 22 people following an Ariana Grande concert last Monday attended largely by teenage girls.

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The Guardian identified the suspect at Ala Zakry, who runs an online Tripoli marketplace called Hasoub Alafak, which offers international electronic funds and internet payment services, helping users to buy items on such websites as Amazon and then helping those customers import the merchandise. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act.

Counterterrorism detectives searched a number of sites in Greater Manchester and Cheshire overnight, as well as a landfill near Bury.

The Guardian said a colleague of Zakry’s said his family lived in Libya.

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Zakry’s mother described her son as a “good boy,” who never would be involved in terrorism.

“We are very sorry about what happened in Manchester, we’ve no words for how bad it was,” she told the Guardian. “But this is how I know Ala could have nothing to do with this. He has no relation to this kind of behavior.”

Neighbors expressed surprise over the arrest.

“He said he was training to be a pilot at Shoreham Airfield and he had just completed doing that. I am really, really shocked by this. I can’t believe he had been arrested,” Violet Mainda, the owner of a beauty parlor below Zakry’s apartment, told the Telegraph.

“He had a few friends and a girlfriend and always seemed very nice. I don’t know if he worked, I think he just studied to be a pilot. He said he was studying to become a pilot at Shoreham.”

Abedi reportedly was on a list of 20,000 individuals considered potentially dangerous but apparently was not under any official scrutiny. Intelligence officials plan to investigate how they missed the danger he posed as calls for a parliamentary inquiry grew.

Twelve children, six of them in critical care, are among 52 people who remain hospitalized. The bombing injured 116.

Police have arrested more than a dozen people, and the government has instituted temporary exclusion orders to keep suspected jihadists from returning to the country. Monday’s arrest followed a series of raids Sunday.

Also Monday, investigators issued a new image of Abedi on the day he committed his attack. He is seen carrying a blue suitcase. Police warned the public not to go near the suitcase if they spot it, saying the contents could be dangerous. Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson of the counterterrorism unit said the suitcase is different than the backpack used in the attack, and Abedi was seen with it in the days leading up to the bombing.

The BBC said it had obtained footage that appears to show Abedi shopping at a convenience store near his apartment hours before the bombing.

Manchester Victoria train station was to reopen Tuesday, British Transport said. The station suffered structural damage in the bombing.