A TEENAGER who reportedly below himself up in Iraq is believed to have become Britain’s youngest suicide bomber.
Isis-affiliated social media accounts on Saturday (13) revealed that Talha Asmal, 17, from Dewsbury was one of four suicide bombers who attacked security forces near an oil refinery south of Baiji.
According to the Guardian Isis social media reports said Asmal, named as Abu Yusuf al-Britani, detonated a vehicle fitted with explosives.
His family said they were "devastated" at the news. West Yorkshire police are yet to confirm if the reports are true.
A statement issued by Asmal's 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 world wide web, targeted and befriended Talha and engaged in a process of deliberate and calculated grooming of him.
"Whilst there it appears that Talha fell under the spell of individuals who continued to prey on his innocence and vulnerability to the point where if the press reports are accurate he was ordered to his death by so-called Isis handlers and leaders too cowardly to do their own dirty work.
"We are all naturally utterly devastated and heartbroken by the unspeakable tragedy that now appears to have befallen us."
Asmal travelled to Syria with fellow Dewsbury teenager Hassan Munshi.
Munshi's brother, Hammaad Munshi, was arrested in 2006 at the age of 16 after police found a guide to making napalm on his computer.
Another West Yorkshire teenager, Hasib Hussein, was almost 19 when he blew himself up on a London bus in the July 7 2005 attacks.
