Mirror: White Widow planning revenge attacks after Makaburi’s death

White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite

London, England: White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite was last night feared to be planning a new wave of attacks against Westerners in revenge for the killing of her terror teacher.

Sheikh Abubakar Shariff Ahmed is believed to have recruited hundreds of Brits - including Lewthwaite, her pal Jermaine Grant, who is on trial accused of bomb plots, and Lee Rigby’s killer Michael Adebolajo.

But Ahmed also known as Makaburi, meaning “graveyard” – was gunned down in Mombasa, Kenya, on Tuesday, just moments after he appeared in public to support five youths accused of being part of the terror group al-Shabaab.

Today we can also reveal how the hate preacher exclusively spoke to the Mirror last year and predicted his own death at the hands of the Kenyan government.

Intelligence sources fear mum-of-four Lewthwaite also blames the Kenyan authorities for the death of her mentor and will retaliate with attacks on Western targets across Africa.

A senior security source said: ­“International security services are on high alert after this latest bloody development. Makaburi was always believed to be at the very top of the hierarchy of terror organisation al-Shabaab.

“He had considerable influence over the recruitment and ideology of the group and most certainly had a hand in international operations.

“Intelligence suggests Makaburi introduced Samantha Lewthwaite to many influential figures within the al-Shabaab network – he guided her path to Jihad.

“This will be seen as yet another act of war and could spectacularly backfire on the Kenyan government if they are found to be responsible for his death.”

The source added: “Lewthwaite and her associates will want revenge.”

Lewthwaite, a suspect in bomb plots across East Africa, fled Britain following the death of her husband, 7/7 London suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay .

Makaburi is believed to have taken Lewthwaite in and ­introduced her to a network of contacts in East Africa.

After years of openly praising violence in the name of Jihad, Makaburi was finally slaughtered by, “men in white robes” and left riddled with bullets next to a ditch.

A witness claimed Makaburi’s corpse was taken to the Masjid Musa mosque in Majengo, Mombasa – the place where the 45-year-old was suspected of meeting and mentoring Lewthwaite, Grant and Adebolajo.

His unwashed body was buried in his bloodstained clothes “to show he died as a martyr in the holy war”.

We can also reveal how he labelled David Cameron and Barack Obama terrorists and praised Woolwich killer Michael Adebolajo for, “avenging the deaths of innocent Muslims”.

For the last few months of his life Makaburi was effectively in hiding 24 hours a day and battling three separate court cases, in which he was accused of being a senior recruiter for al-Shabaab.

His friend Sheikh Aboud Rogo – another firebrand cleric – was assassinated in August 2012, as was successor Sheikh Ibrahim Rogo in October 2013.

But Makaburi was defiant in the face of death when he spoke to the Mirror just days after the bloody terror attacks at Nairobi’s Westgate mall in September.

At this hideout in the no-go area of Shanzu, Mombasa, he said: “I am doing nothing illegal.

"My government wants to kill me – tried to kill me. Killed my friend and I am the terrorist?

“I am not the terrorist. To me, al-Shabaab is not the terrorist.

“I am a law-abiding citizen in my own country. If I have views, that is my right to have views, so why I am being targeted?

"You cannot go attacking Muslim countries and not expect another Muslim country not to help them.

"If somebody does that you term him as a terrorist. But you are the one going around countries attacking them.

“That is what England is doing, that is what America and France is doing. And that is reality – there is no simpler way of putting it”.

Makaburi and Lewthwaite, who became the most-wanted woman after Interpol issued an arrest warrant for her capture, are believed to have met in 2010 in Mombasa.

When asked about his association with her, he replied: “It would be very difficult for a lady to join al-Shabaab.

"Those people are living Islamically.”

But perhaps tellingly, he added: “Any woman would have to have a maharam [a chaperone].

“They would not allow a lady without a maharam to mingle amongst them. A lady is not allowed to travel without a maharam.”

-Mirror