The sister of Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi believes her brother carried out the attack because he wanted revenge for US air strikes on Syria.
Jomana Abedi said in an interview her brother was kind and loving and that she was surprised by what he did on Monday.
At least 22 people were killed and dozens seriously injured when 22-year-old Abedi detonated a device as fans left an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena.
Ms Abedi said she thought he was driven by America's military attacks in the Middle East.
“I think he saw children - Muslim children - dying everywhere, and wanted revenge," she told the Wall Street Journal .
"He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge. Whether he got that is between him and God.”
In the most recent high-profile attack in Syria last month, the US military fired 59 Tomahawk missiles from the USS Porter and USS Ross warships in the Mediterranean Sea at the al-Shayran air base near the western city of Homs, which the Pentagon said was used to store chemical weapons.
Six Syrian soldiers were reported to have been killed in the missile strike, which destroyed as much as 90 per cent of the base. Syrian officials said nine civilians, including four children, were also killed.
Ms Abedi's attempt to justify the attack was branded "abhorrent".
"There is no justification for the taking of a child's lives," Mark Session, 52, from Manchester, was quoted as saying by the Mirror .
"Any kid losing their life is heartbreaking, but to my knowledge, no children in the allied air strikes has been targeted purposely unlike in Manchester."
"It is sick to justify the arena bombing in such a way. It is abhorrent in fact. "There is no place for her comments." Victims of the Manchester suicide bomb attack named, in pictures
Abedi's family has come under much scrutiny in the wake of the attacks.
His father, Ramadan, was arrested in Tripoli and was allegedly a member of the al-Qaeda-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s, according to a former Libyan security official, Abdel-Basit Haroun. The elder Abedi denied he was part of the militant group.
Abedi's younger brother Hashim was also arrested in Tripoli and allegedly knew his brother was planning an attack in Manchester.
A 23-year-old man - named in reports as Abedi's older brother Ismail - was detained in Chorlton, south Manchester, on Tuesday. (Telegraph)
