Turkish security officials said Turkey had no prior intelligence on Salman Abedi, the suicide bomber who killed 22 people in Manchester on Monday, from European countries before he traveled from İstanbul to the UK.
According to a story by Reuters, a Turkish security official said there were no records concerning Abedi entering Syria during his travels.
Turkey has regularly been used as a transit point for European militants traveling to fight with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria’s civil war.
“There is flight traffic before his arrival to Europe. He travels first to Europe, then to a third country and then to Istanbul and back to Europe,” the official told Reuters.
According to a story in Financial Times on Thursday, German intelligence discovered that Abedi had traveled to England from İstanbul four days before the suicide attack.
Abedi, who was born in Manchester of Libyan parents, flew from İstanbul to the UK via Dusseldorf’s international airport, a German intelligence official told the Financial Times.
ISIL has claimed the responsibility for the attack.