Manchester bomber Salman Abedi revealed in new pictures showing the terrorist with the missing blue suitcase

COPS hunting for clues in the last known movements of Salman Abedi - before he detonated a bomb and killed 22 people at the Manchester Arena - have released more pictures of him.

In a bid to find out why Abedi visited certain areas and track down a missing blue suitcase he was seen dragging around police hope to jog the memory of anyone who may have seen him.

It is now known he left the country on April 15 and arrived back on May 18, buying parts for the nail bomb he built upon his return.

But what cops desperately want to know is if the killer had any of the bomb parts before he left the UK.

Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson, Head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unity, said: "We have made a lot of progress in this with the use of CCTV and have received some really helpful calls from the public. This has led us to the Banff Road area in Rusholme.

"We have had police officers conducting house to house enquiries but we are still not satisfied why Abedi went there and its vital we understand exactly where he went there and who he spoke to in these final days before the attack.

"We need the public’s help in this. If you have previously called and have information, I would urge you to call again. We need your help as we piece together what happened in the lead up to the attack and if Abedi was helped by anyone.

";Did you see Abedi in the Rusholme area between 18th and 22nd May.

"Do you have any information about his movements on these dates?

"You may think it’s insignificant, but it could be a key piece of information to assist us.

"We need your help as we piece together what happened in the lead up to the attack and if Abedi was helped by anyone."

The cousins of Abedi today revealed their horror over what he did.

He targeted people coming out of an Ariana Grande gig on May 22, killing and injuring people who had come from all over the UK.

His cousins spoke to ITV about what they felt after learning of the atrocity committed by someone they had grown up with.

They said: "I couldn't stop crying, especially the first few days when I was being questioned, and every time that story was brought up - little girls innocent lives, we just couldn't stop ourselves from just crying.

"That's all you can do really - their lives, 22 lives have gone."

Adding: "We had a lot of things in common, a lot of things in common.

"We used to do all sorts of things like playing football to, you know, experiencing the party life. All sorts, I'm not going to deny that.

"Similar thoughts, similar things we used to do, it's just the way it's flipped - I have no idea why that's happened and how it's happened."

Since the horrific attack it has emerged Abedi used to play football with two fellow United supporting Jihadis in the city.

The 22-year-old bomber would play five-a-side regularly with Khalif Shariff who died fighting for ISIS and an RAF convert Stephen Gray who was convicted of terror offences.

Last week cops released two full-length images of Abedi — with the lift wall blacked out — on his way up to the section of the arena he would detonate the nail bomb.

It came after pre-dawn raids carried out by the SAS and police last week led to the seizure of missing explosives at a house in Manchester’s Moss Side area.