UK’s youngest suicide bomber was ‘exploited’ online, says family

The family of a West Yorkshire teenager, believed to have become Britain's youngest suicide bomber, said they have been left "utterly devastated and heartbroken by the unspeakable tragedy".

Pictures of Talha Asmal (17) were released by Islamic State on Saturday, along with a statement saying that he detonated a vehicle fitted with explosives in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji. The militant group said his name was Abu Yusuf al-Britani but was identified as Asmal.

His family said: “Talha was a loving, kind, caring and affable teenager. He never harboured any ill-will against anybody nor did he ever exhibit any violent, extreme or radical views of any kind. Talha’s tender years and naivety were, it seems however, exploited by persons unknown, who, hiding behind the anonymity of the worldwide web, targeted and befriended Talha and engaged in a process of deliberate and calculated grooming of him.”

In April, they said the teenager boarded a flight to Turkey with his friend Hassan Munshi, also 17 at the time.

Islamic State named Britani as one of four suicide bombers. The attacks are understood to have occurred in Iraq's Salahuddin province, around one of the country's largest oil refineries. – (Guardian service)