Talha Asmal

Talha Asmal was a British teenager from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire who traveled with his neighbour Hassan Munshi to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in March 2015. A few months later, in June, he became the youngest suicide bomber in British history. He was seventeen at the time of his death.

Dewsbury Talha Asmal and Hassan Munshi were nine months apart in age and lived next door to each other in a Muslim majority neighbourhood, Savile Town. Both of their families were of Gujarati origin. Both worshipped at a nearby mosque which had been founded by Hassan's grandfather.

Talha was studying for his A-levels at Mirfield Free Grammar and Sixth Form. His former principal described him as a "conscientious student" who did not draw attention to himself. Hassan was an apprentice.

On March 31, 2015, Talha and Hassan took a flight to Turkey. They were both seventeen years old when they left. Both their families issued a statement, appealing for anyone with information to contact the police. They described their sons as "just two ordinary Yorkshire lads" with promising futures and said they were profoundly shocked and wanted them back home.

Their trip to the Middle East in 2015 was not the first time Talha and Hassan had been exposed to terrorism. Hassan is the younger brother of Hammaad Munshi, who was arrested in 2006 at the age of sixteen, and accused, along with two men in their twenties, of participating in a terrorist plot to kill non-Muslims Hammaad was convicted of making a record of information likely to be used for terrorist purposes. By the time Hassan Munshi left the United Kingdom with Talha, seven years had passed since his brother Hammaad's sentencing and Hammaad was twenty-five years old, out of custody and living at home with his family. detonating a vehicle fitted with explosives. He was part of a team of suicide bombers who targeted forces near an oil refinery south of Baiji. At least eleven people were reported to have been killed in the attack. In the images, Talha is shown smiling. Shahid Malik, who is a friend of the Asmal family, called the images "disturbing."

When word of Talha's death reached his and the Munshi brothers' neighbourhood in Dewsbury, many neighbours were grief-stricken. Talha's family said they were "utterly devastated and heartbroken”. His parents stated they believed their son had been groomed and exploited by jihadists, whom they said deliberately targeted him in his "tender years and naivety." They urged others who fear their relatives might be becoming radicalized to contact the authorities. They suggested Talha may have been radicalized online.

At the time of Talha's death, Hassan Munshi's whereabouts were unknown. A neighbor in Dewsbury said he'd heard the two teenagers parted ways shortly after reaching ISIL in the Middle East.