Somali terror chief linked to White Widow lived in capital

 
25 October 2013

A leader of terror group al Shabab, who has been linked to “White Widow” Samantha Lewthwaite, had previously lived in London, it emerged today.

An investigation by the BBC has found that Abdikadir Mohammed — who is also known as Ikrimah — came to Britain early in 2007 after being refused asylum in Norway.

He spent around a year here, living in London for at least part of his stay, before moving back to Somalia to begin masterminding terror attacks and the recruitment of foreign fighters.

He is suspected of involvement in organising the attack on Kenya’s Westgate shopping centre, in which 67 people died, and was targeted earlier this month by US special forces in a failed raid on a hideout in Somalia.

Commandos from Seal Team Six — the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden — carried out the seaborne mission, arriving before dawn in the Somali town of Barawe in an attempt to snatch Ikrimah.

The raid, which US officials said was linked to the Westgate attack, was aborted amid heavy resistance from al Shabab fighters, allowing Ikrimah to remain at liberty.

He is regarded as a key link between al Shabab and the Yemeni-based terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Kenyan intelligence documents have also linked him to Lewthwaite, the widow of July 7 London bomber Jermaine Lindsay, who is now subject of a worldwide Interpol arrest warrant and similarly regarded as a key figure in the east African terrorist network.

Today’s BBC investigation quoted the Kenyan authorities as saying that they believe that the detention of Lewthwaite and Abdikadir Mohammed (Ikrimah) could be critical in preventing future attacks. Details of Mohammed’s activities in London, and how he was allowed to come here, are so far unknown. But previous reports have revealed that he was refused asylum in Norway after a stay in which he had tried to recruit fighters for al Shabab from across Europe. Sources have also previously claimed that he regularly changed his appearance, veering between long hair and on one occasion a moustache, making him look like former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Since his return to Somalia he is suspected of planning an assault on Mandera airport in north-east Kenya earlier this year and a 2011 plot in which “youth” in a Nairobi safe house were intended to prepare a “major” attack.

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