THE Manchester bombing was an act of revenge for the West’s military attacks in the Middle East, the terrorist’s sister has suggested, as it emerged Salman Abedi telephoned his mother just hours before he struck, saying: “Forgive me.”

Jomana Abedi said: “He saw children - Muslim children - dying everywhere and wanted revenge. He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria and he wanted revenge. Whether he got that is between him and God."

In April, six Syrian soliders and nine civilians, including four children, were killed following a US strike on a chemical weapons store.

A Libyan anti-terror official also revealed how the 22-year-old terrorist had phoned his mother hours before the Manchester attack and told her: “Forgive me.”

Details of the intelligence agencies' knowledge of Abedi came as police hunting the "network" behind his attack said they had made "significant" arrests and seized "very important" items in raids linked to the investigation. Eight people are now in custody.

Last night, a street was sealed off as police continued to search a property in Wigan amid reports that a bomb disposal unit was called to the scene.

The Herald:

After it was revealed that the bomber had been a "former subject of interest" to the security services whose risk "remained subject to review", a Whitehall source revealed how 18 plots had been foiled since 2013 in Britain, including five in just nine weeks since the Westminster attack in March this year.

On Monday night, Abedi targeted music fans at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, murdering 22 people, including seven children, and injuring dozens in the worst terrorist incident to hit Britain since the July 7 2005 attacks in London.

Today, Jeremy Corbyn, in his first keynote speech since election campaigning was suspended, is set to spark controversy when he will suggest that the interventionist policies of Tony Blair and David Cameron in Iraq and Libya respectively have increased the threat of terrorism in Britain.

The Labour leader is due to say at a campaign event in London: “Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home.

“That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and held to account for their actions.

“But an informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people that fights rather than fuels terrorism.”

He will add: “We must be brave enough to admit the ‘war on terror’ is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.”

A Conservative source said the party would not be making an immediate response, pointing out how Mr Corbyn had breached an inter-party agreement by releasing his words under a 10pm embargo ahead of Friday’s resumption of national campaigning.

Meantime, Theresa May will today at the G7 summit in Sicily urge the world's leading industrial nations to come together to pressure tech companies to remove "harmful" extremist content from the web.

The Prime Minister, who will chair a session on counter-terrorism, will argue that as so-called Islamic State loses ground in its heartlands in Iraq and Syria, the threat from extremism is "evolving rather than disappearing" with the fight moving from "the battlefield to the internet".

She will insist say the industry has a "social responsibility" to take down harmful content and will call for the creation of an "international industry-led forum" to work through the issues.

At a Nato summit in Brussels, Donald Trump said the leaking to the US media of details of the bomb and the terrorist’s identity was “deeply troubling” and pledged a full investigation.

In a sign perhaps of both sides seeking to mend the UK-US Special Relationship, Rex Tillerson, America’s Secretary of State, will make his first official visit to the UK today in what the Foreign Office described as an “expression of UK-US solidarity” following Monday’s terror attack.

At home, NHS England said 23 people remained in critical care across eight hospitals; they include five children at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

The authorities said all 22 victims had now been identified. They include Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra. Her devastated family paid tribute to the "vivacious" teenager, who was "full of fun". Eilidh’s friend, Laura MacIntyre, 15, is still being treated in hospital for serious injuries.

It was also confirmed Piotr Chylewska, a father-of-two from South Lanarkshire, is among the injured. He is believed to have taken one of his children to the Manchester Arena when the suicide bomber struck.

In other developments:

*security is expected to be tight in Edinburgh tonight when Barack Obama, the former US President, makes his first trip to Scotland to speak at a charity dinner in the city;

*the Queen visited some of the injured youngsters at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and condemned the "very wicked" attack;

*at 11am the nation fell silent to mark the tragedy and

*British Transport Police announced specialist firearms officers are to patrol on board trains nationwide for the first time.