A Scots jihadi has said he is alive and well in an online message to family, telling them his heart "is not made of stone".

IS militant Abdul Raqib Amin, 26, told his family on social media that he misses them, but that he loves Allah more.

He left Britain earlier this year to join Islamic jihadists, who have killed thousands of Syrians, publicly beheaded British and American journalists and brutally murdered an aid worker.

His latest contact with relatives indicates he is still alive, despite unconfirmed reports that he had died in battle several weeks ago.

After leaving the UK, Amin, from Aberdeen, said he had no intention of returning home and would continue to fight until he was killed.

His friends spoke of their shock and disbelief that a man who they thought was just "one of the guys" had become so radicalised.

In a recent message to his family, Amin insists he is not completely heartless, despite having warned people in Britain that IS "are not going to attack them ...yet".

He said: "Oh my family, do not think my heart has become a stone.

"I do miss you, I love you, but I love Allah more."

The message was revealed on his sister's social media account, attached to a now-notorious picture Amin in which he grins at the camera, holding an assault rifle.

He signs the message off from "Abu Baraa", a name Amin has been fighting under.

The bearded militant in the picture is unrecognisable from the smiling, innocent young lad photographed when he was living in Aberdeen.

Amin moved with his family from Bangladesh to the city's Froghall area when he was 10.

He spent two years at Sunnybank Primary School then moved to St Machar Academy.

After Amin completed his second year at the academy, his father moved him back to Bangladesh because - according to a friend - he was becoming "too westernised".

When he returned to the Scotland after two years, his friends noticed there had been a change in him, and that he had become more religious.