'Sorted' by MI5: How UK government sent British-Libyans to fight Gaddafi

[TomSea]

'Sorted' by MI5: How UK government sent British-Libyans to fight Gaddafi
Fighters say government operated 'open door' policy allowing them to join rebels, as authorities investigate background of Manchester bomber


A mural in Tripoli paying tribute to fighters from Manchester who joined the 17 February Martyrs' Brigade during Libya's revolution against Gaddafi (AFP)

Amandla Thomas-Johnson  Simon Hooper
Thursday 25 May 2017 07:20 UTC

The British government operated an "open door" policy that allowed Libyan exiles and British-Libyan citizens to join the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi even though some had been subject to counter-terrorism control orders, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Several former rebel fighters now back in the UK told MEE that they had been able to travel to Libya with "no questions asked" as authorities continued to investigate the background of a British-Libyan suicide bomber who killed 22 people in Monday's attack in Manchester.

Salman Abedi, 22, the British-born son of exiled dissidents who returned to Libya as the revolution against Gaddafi gathered momentum, is also understood to have spent time in the North African country in 2011 and to have returned there on several subsequent occasions.

Continued: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sorted-mi5-how-uk-government-sent-british-libyans-fight-gaddafi-1219906488