Mohammed Rizwan Awan
Abu Musa al-Britani, or Mohammed Rizwan Awan, was said to have blown up 30 people in a suicide bombing at an Iraqi check point Twitter

A British Islamic State (Isis) suicide bomber named as Abu Musa al-Britani who is said to have killed "nearly 30" Iraqi army and Sunni forces in Anbar Province has been identified as Mohammed Rizwan Awan from Huddersfield.

The IS (Daesh) attack, which took place on 21 March, targeted a convoy of soldiers and the jihadists claimed to have killed over 30 people, but Iraqi army services dispute that figure. The army had left Ain al-Assad military air base en-route to Kubaysah in the north-west of Anbar province.

Almost immediately afterwards, IS released an image of the British jihadist smiling for the camera whilst holding an AK47 rifle. The image of the attacker included a caption which read: "Martyrdom brother Abu Musa al-Britani, Allah accepts him, the striker on the Rafdi army."

The image was beamed around the world and now a family living in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, have said that they recognised the picture, admitting that they "knew in their hearts" that it was their relative. According to the BBC, the Awan family said that he was 27-years-old, married and from the Crosland Moor area.

Although his identity has not been confirmed by the British Government or Iraqi officials, Awan's family said they were sure it was him. They said that he had left the UK and headed for Mecca in 2015 before they received a letter saying he was intending to settle in Saudi Arabia.

The Iraqi authorities said that al-Britani was the only bomber killed when his car rammed a group of Iraqi army troops and vehicles near al-Asad air base in Anbar. Recently, dozens of Iraqi troops and jihadists have been killed in the region which borders Syria to its west.

A number of suicide bombers have hailed from West Yorkshire, including 17-year-old Talha Asmal from Dewsbury, who was one of four suicide bombers who carried out attacks near Baiji in Iraq in 2015. British A-level student Fatlum Shakalu, 20, was one of six militants who killed themselves in Ramadi, in Iraq.

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