- She ‘works in Intelligence Unit of Somali-based terror group Al-Shabaab’
- Her minions pose as street sellers and shop owners to gather information
- Somalian officers collected information on her from its defected members
- Samantha Lewthwaite is thought to be behind murders of over 400 people
- ‘Masterminded’ massacre at Kenyan university and raid on Westgate Mall
White widow Samantha Lewthwaite commands a terrifying army of up to 200 female jihadis who she has trained to infiltrate governments, carry out suicide attacks, and call the British-born terrorist ‘Mother of Holy War’, MailOnline has learned.
Lewthwaite, the widow of London 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay, is working in the Intelligence Unit of Somali terror group Al-Shabaab, according to the country’s intelligence agencies.
And one of her star ‘students’ was behind the shocking suicide attack on a hotel in the capital Mogadishu which killed 28 people.
The revelations emerged amid shocking claims that Lewthwaite has masterminded the murders of 400 people – including the senseless slaughter of 148 at a university in Kenya – since becoming a ‘key member’ of the terror group.
She is thought to be an active member of Al-Shabaab where she is currently employed in its Amniyat – or Intelligence Unit – Somali security sources have told MailOnline.
They say she lives with a group of widowed Al-Shabaab women and trains them to gather intelligence in government-controlled areas in Somalia by posing as tea shop owners, street sellers and hotel workers.
Lewthwaite’s spies collect information from government troops patrolling the areas, even if they are simply gossiping about Al-Shabaab, and pass secret messages back to their twisted leader.
She forwards this to other top Al-Shabaab officials such as its intelligence chief Mahad Karate and group’s leader Ahmed Omar Abu-Ubeyda, whom she is thought to be close to.
Intelligence officer Mohamed Hassan told MailOnline: ‘Her activities inside the group are increasingly directed by al-Shabaab’s chief of intelligence Mahad Karate.’
A Somali-born woman who carried out a suicide attack at the Central Hotel in Mogadishu where she was posing as a receptionist is believed to be one of her former disciples. An MP and the city’s deputy mayor were among the dead.
Lul Ahmed killed 28 people on February 20, when she blew herself up at the hotel as part of a ‘sophisticated inside job’ targeting the senior Somali government officials and politicians who were meeting there.
Hassan added: ‘We have intelligence reports that suggest that White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite was somehow involved in the bombing at the Central hotel, one of the most serious attacks in Mogadishu.’
Ahmed’s parents are claimed to be from Birmingham,Waagacusub Media has reported.
The website claims her father was a Colonel in the Somali National Army and her mother knew she joined Al-Shabaab after she separated her husband.
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The night before the attack was the first time mother-of-six Ahmed stayed in the hotel. Thirteen other members of staff and two managers were arrested and interrogated, Somali security officials said.
Lewthwaite apparently poses as a nomadic woman who travels undercover with camels and goats which make her very difficult to trace.
But Hassan says they have ‘credible security information on her activities’ from former senior members of Al-Shabaab who have since defected, such as its ex-intelligence chief Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi.
‘Those who defected from Al-Shabaab are providing us with very helpful information on Samantha Lewthwaite.
‘Inside Al-Shabaab, Lewthwaite is given the title “Mother of Holy War” sources are telling us… Others call her a “warrior lady”.
‘Her reputation is going up as she attracts many women in the phenomena of the so-called jihad.’
The 31-year-old has masterminded the murders of 400 people after rapidly climbing the ranks of Al-Shabaab, according to The Mirror.
British-born Lewthwaite is thought to have orchestrated a number of attacks including last month’s slaughter of 148 people at a university in northern Kenya.
Lewthwaite is the daughter of a former soldier who served in Northern Ireland and the widow of one of the London 7/7 suicide bombers Germaine Lindsay.
On the morning of July 7, 2005, four British jihadis carried out a coordinated terrorist attack on London’s transport system, detonating three bombs aboard underground trains and a fourth on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square.
The so-called White Widow fled her home in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire soon after atrocious attacks and has since been linked to a series of shocking Al-Shabaab attacks.
They include the raid on Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, which killed 67 and the massacre at Garissa University College in which 148 people were slaughtered.
The mother-of-four is ‘an evil person but a very clever operator’ who has been quickly promoted after many of al Shabaab’s leaders have been killed in drone strikes, an officer in the Somali security forces told the Mirror.
He claimed she is now coordinating car bombs and suicide attacks in Somalia and Kenya, recruiting children as jihadis and offering poverty-stricken families hundreds of pounds to use their youngsters and women as suicide bombers.
Adding: ‘She does not carry out attacks herself as she is too important but is responsible for many, many deaths – hundreds.’
‘We know she has surrounded herself with other Britons, her own people as her Somali language is not so good. They are her lieutenants and bodyguards.’
Lewthwaite even has partners outside Somalia that ‘boost her credibility in the group’ as she inducts jihadists who can successfully entice foreign Muslims into the group, a Mogadishu-based security analyst has said.
Ahmed Abdi told MailOnline: ‘Al-Shabaab female members are not used in combat operations but they are used in suicide bombings and collecting information at government controlled areas.’
Mail Online
