Sharing a hug before setting off on his murderous mission, this is a 17-year-old schoolboy pictured moments before he became Britain’s youngest suicide bomber.
Talha Asmal, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was reportedly killed after detonating a car packed with explosives as part of an Islamic State attack in Iraq after being groomed online by IS fanatics.
He was said by his former MP, a family friend, to have been a ‘sweet natured, friendly kid’, but on Saturday he was part of a team who killed 11 after blowing themselves up near an oil refinery.
Talha’s distraught family said last night that jihadis used the internet to exploit the A-level student’s naivety in a process of ‘deliberate and calculated grooming’.
Images released by the terrorists show Talha smiling and taking orders as he stands beside a Toyota SUV alongside other fighters before their convoy attacked an oil refinery.
He had been studying ICT and business at Mirfield Free Grammar School whose head, Lorraine Barker, has previously described him as quiet and hard working.
Talha lived at the family’s terraced home yards from the local mosque with his mother Noorjaha, 38, and father Ibrahim, 42.
But in April he entered Syria after fleeing on a Thomas Cook flight with his next-door neighbour and best friend Hassan Munshi, the brother of Britain’s youngest convicted terrorist.
Hundreds of young British Muslims are thought to have fled their families over the last year to join IS, prompting fears about escalating home-grown terrorism in the UK.
Officials have yet to confirm whether Talha was one of 11 people killed in the bombings but his family said pictures of a fighter – using his jihadi name of Abu Yusuf al-Britani – showed their son.
In a damning statement, the family revealed how Talha had been radicalised after falling ‘under the spell of individuals who preyed on his innocence and vulnerability’.
They accused the terrorist group of using the young Briton to carry out the attack as its leadership is ‘too cowardly to do their own dirty work’. The statement said: ‘Talha comes from a close knit, hard working, peace loving and law abiding British Muslim family.
‘Talha himself 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.
‘We are all naturally utterly devastated and heartbroken by the unspeakable tragedy that now appears to have befallen us.’
The family, from a predominantly Asian area of Dewsbury, said the IS cause was not supported by the Muslim community. They said: ‘The entire family unreservedly condemns and abhors all acts of violence wherever perpetrated.
‘As a family we would like to take this opportunity to unequivocally state that ‘‘ISIS’’ are not Islam. They do not represent in any way, shape or form Islam and Muslims and we are no longer prepared to allow a barbaric group like ‘‘ISIS’’ to hijack our faith.’
The terrorist group claimed that a German, Palestinian and Kuwaiti were among the group of suicide bombers that targeted the oil refinery in Iraq’s Salahuddin province.
Talha is believed to have told his family he would be away for a few days on a college trip, but they became concerned when they could not contact him and police were called.
Former Labour MP for Dewsbury Shahid Malik said: ‘Talha was a truly sweet natured, helpful, respectful and friendly kid. It is incredibly difficult to reconcile this Talha with the suicide bomber at an Iraqi oil installation.
‘It is disturbing to see how relaxed he looks in the ISIS photographs allegedly taken just prior to his suicide mission.
‘He looks at peace. It’s like he’s ready to go and meet his maker. This is a clear indication of just how successful the evil ISIS groomers have been in poisoning and brainwashing Talha and kids like him.’
The whereabouts of Hassan Munshi are unknown. His brother Hammaad was 15 when he was arrested in 2006 and found to have a guide to making napalm. He was jailed for two years in 2008 for being part of an Al Qaeda cell.
Previously, Britain’s youngest known suicide bomber was Hasib Hussein, also from West Yorkshire, who was 18 when he detonated a bomb he was carrying during the 7/7 attacks in London in 2005.
In recent years Dewsbury has gained notoriety as a hotbed for Muslim extremism. Mohammad Sidique Khan, the 7/7 ringleader, orchestrated the attack from his home in the town.
By Mario Ledwith, Martin Robinson
