The family of a British teenager, believed to have become country'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 the Islamic State group or ISIS 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 following media reports identifying the boy in the pictures as Asmal, his family released a statement expressing their grief. "Talha was a loving, kind, caring and affable teenager," they said.
"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, the teenager boarded a flight to Turkey with his friend Hassan Munshi, also 17 at the time. The families of both boys issued an urgent appeal for their return, adding they were gravely worried the pair had joined the Islamic State group.
Its statements named Britani as one of four suicide bombers. The others were said to be a German, a Kuwaiti and a Palestinian.