COUNTER-terrorism police are investigating social media posts purported to be of a 15-year-old Bradford schoolboy brandishing an AK47 assault rifle and pledging allegiance to IS.

The Facebook images appear to be of Ibrahim Iqbal, who was taken to Syria by his mother, her two sisters and their eight other children last year.

Other images appear to be of him posing with his older brother Junaid, who is now 16.

They have been posted alongside pictures of ammunition and grenades.

The Facebook page of Ibrahim Iqbal has now been taken down but it claims he is from Bradford, his nickname was Abu Mu’tasim and was also known as Shotta Ibby, that he works as ‘bein (sic) a legend’ and even attended Harvard University.

His mother Sugra Dawood, 35, and her sisters Khadija Dawood, 31, and Zohra Dawood, 34, along with their children, then aged between four and 16, have not been heard from since they left Bradford last year, leaving their husbands behind.

The Leeds-based North East Counter Terrorism Unit is leading the investigation into the family’s disappearance said its inquiries were ongoing.

The unit took over the case from West Yorkshire Police which had been liaising with authorities in Turkey.

A spokesman for the CTU said last night: “We are aware of posts made on social media. These are currently being reviewed to establish if any offences have been committed.”

Ishtiaq Ahmed, a spokesman for Bradford Council for Mosques said: “We are very concerned.

“If it is confirmed that these pictures are real then it will raise additional alarm bells that young people are being used by the so-called Islamic State to propagate their violent game and entice other young people from Britain to join.”

Councillor Taj Salam (Lab, Little Horton), whose ward includes where the families were living, also said it was worrying news.

“I’ve not yet seen these images, but it is both frightening and worrying.

“We do not know whether the images are genuine but it must be really upsetting for the husbands who are still here. They are still searching for their families.

“In this area we are continuing to work to police and safeguarding teams to educate young people against this sort of thing and stop them falling in these traps and feel we have done a lot of good. These are isolated incidents,” he said.

It is thought the Dawood family went to Syria where a brother of the three sisters is believed to be fighting with extremists.

It is believed that ten members of the family travelled to Istanbul on a flight on June 9 last year but two of the children went missing. The family was officially reported missing on June 11.

The group split into two groups to cross into Syria from Turkey, an Islamic State smuggler later claimed.

Soon after news the family went missing last year, Babaal Hussain Khan, a Bradford solicitor working for the husbands of the three sisters said there had been no confirmed sightings of the Dawood family since they were at an hotel in Medina, in Saudi Arabia, where they had visited on a pilgrimage.

Mr Khan had added Ibrahim’s older brother Junaid was acting as the family’s mahram - an appropriate male responsible for the family - during the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Their families in Little Horton have not heard anything of their whereabouts and are working closely with police, he said.

Only days after the families went missing their partners, who had been happy for the trip to take place, said they had wanted to travel to Turkey to find their wives and children, which Mr Khan had advised against.

He said: “They cannot do anything. They are literally sitting by the phone, hoping that one of the family members will contact them.”

Mr Khan confirmed to the Telegraph & Argus three weeks ago that the family members were still missing.

He said: “It’s a substantial amount of time that they have been gone. They are still hoping that they can all be reunited.

“It is over a year ago now. The hope is they can still be found.”

Meanwhile, seven members of a second Bradford family, also believed to be in Syria, are still missing.

Imran Ameen, 39, his wife Farzana Ameen, 40, and their five children – Isma Imran, 15, Moeen Imran, 14, Mohammed Muneeb Imran, 11, Ismail Imran, eight, and Mohamed Imran, five, disappeared last October.