British jihadist Thomas Evans behind Lamu terrorist gang killed

A British man and a senior Kenyan Al-Shabaab commander were among terrorists killed in an abortive raid at a military camp in Lamu County on Sunday.
Thomas Evans, 25, was from Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom, while Issa Lukman Osman, 31, was from Kikowani, Mombasa. Both were on a police watchlist of wanted suspects.
However, their identities were not officially confirmed because DNA tests were still being carried out.
The Englishman had adopted the name Abdul Hakim after converting to Islam, while Osman was also known as Shirwa or Deere.
The spokesman of the Kenya Defence Forces, Colonel David Obonyo, on Monday said the two were identified from photographs that are “in the public domain”.
He said: “Security agencies have embarked on forensics with the aim of establishing these identities. Their details have been shared with other agencies also.”
The two are believed to have taken part in the killing of more than 70 people in Mpeketoni last year. Osman was in charge of the killers.
During the 5.30am attack on Sunday, which coincided with the first anniversary of the Mpeketoni attacks, the terrorists had attempted a raid at the Baure military camp, about 39 kilometres from Baragoni.
The temporary camp was erected last year, just months after the Mpeketoni attacks.
Kenyan soldiers killed 11 of the attackers in a fierce gunfight and injured many others who they pursued into Boni forest. Four of those who escaped were killed later in the evening.
A massive security operation continued in Lamu on Monday and was extended to Garissa County, which also borders Somalia.
MOTHER WAS SHOCKED
In June last year, the British media revealed how Evans’s mother Sally was shocked after he called her to say he had joined Al-Shabaab in Somalia. He had left the UK for Egypt before arriving in the war-torn country in 2011, possibly entering Somalia through Kenya.
She gave the information to police in England, hoping that her son could be arrested and jailed at home rather than be killed in a distant land.
At one time, anti-terror police stopped him at Heathrow Airport and prevented him from travelling to Kenya.
Regarding the Kenyan identified as Osman, he was in charge of Jeshi la Ayman, which is Al-Shabaab’s most active cell at the coast.
A security official told the Nation that Osman led the terrorists who carried out the Mpeketoni massacre.
He operated between Somalia and Kenya, often hiding in Boni Forest. He is believed to have escaped death when Kenya Defence Forces took the key port town of Kuday in Somalia in March. Many Al-Shabaab died in the operation but those who escaped moved towards the Lakta belt, which neighbours the Boni Forest.
In March, an intelligence report seen by the Nation read: “Al-Shabaab in Boni Forest have been responsible for a spate of attacks against KDF convoys and coastal civilians. The militia in Boni
Forest are under the command of Luqman Osman Issa, a brother to Issa Osman Issa who orchestrated the Kikambala bombing in 2002. The militia in Boni Forest is comprised largely by militants from Coast region including Lamu, Malindi and Mombasa.”
Said Hamasa, who was also on the police watchlist, is believed to have been killed on Sunday.
According to Intelligence reports, he was a “low-level” Al-Shabaab commander and owns a tour firm that has a fleet of vehicles. One of his vehicles was used to transport Al-Shabaab attackers who killed two soldiers in Baragoni last year.
Another terrorist who was also killed is said to have roots in central Kenya but lived in Embakasi, Nairobi.
The British High Commissioner to Kenya, Dr Christian Turner, and his US counterpart, Mr Robert Godec, condemned the attack in Lamu and pledged support in the fight against the Al-Shabaab.
Dr Turner made no reference to the slain British man.