Manchester bomber Salman Abedi had been rescued from Libya by the British Navy in August 2014 and brought to Malta for a flight home to the UK, according to the British press.
Mr Abedi killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in May last year. More than 200 other people were injured.
British media are reporting that Mr Abedi, then 19, had been plucked from the Libyan coast and brought to Malta before he was flown to Britain.
His brother Hashem and around 100 other British citizens were also evacuated from Tripoli by HMS Enterprise as the security situation in Libya deteriorated.
Read: Group of Maltese caught up in Manchester's suicide bombing return home
Until a month before his rescue, he was being monitored by UK security forces. The review into the Manchester attack found that, based on the information available at the time, the decision to close his case was sound.
His bother is currently held in jail in Libya by a militia group, but the British government has requested his extradition to face trial for his involvement in the Manchester attack.