Plotting his bloody last stand, the White Beast in African jungle lair
Just hours later 25-year-old British jihadi dies in gun fight
THE shadows are lengthening in the bush of northern Kenya as two cells of Al Qaeda-inspired AlShabaab fighters come together for their final briefing in the hours before launching a terror attack.
At their heart is the heavily-bearded figure of Muslim convert Thomas Evans, a large dagger tucked behind the ammunition pouches strapped across his chest.
Evans, who is from High Wycombe, about 50km from London – and is known as the ‘White Beast’ because of his brutality – smiles as he embraces Islamist fighters who have crossed in groups from the Al-Shabaab heartland of Somalia to team up with Kenyan-based gunmen to prepare for their dawn operation.
But a few hours later 25-year-old Evans is dead, shot as he helped lead the failed mission – the first case of a British Islamist militant being killed on Kenyan soil.
The extraordinary images and videos were found in a camera on Evans’s body in the aftermath of the 5.45am attack at Baure, Lamu County, 11 days ago.
He was the group’s second in command and cameraman in the attack on a Kenyan Defence Force base.
The pictures provide a unique insight into Evans’s role, showing the final minutes of his life and recording him shouting instructions and even the moment he is hit by the fatal bullet. Dawn has barely broken as the fighters, illuminated by gunfire and explosions, move from the cover of the bush to begin their assault with Evans recording what Al-Shabaab hope will be another bloody coup.
There are bursts of automatic fire from hunched gunmen while incoming Kenyan bullets pour towards the fighters.
Suddenly, the footage stops as Evans is hit, collapsing before comrades try to drag him back into the bush.
Evans – who had changed his name to Abdul Hakim and is believed to have taken part in a massacre at a nearby village a year ago that left 70 dead – was one of at least 11 jihadis killed in the failed attack.
Five remarkable videos found on his body by the Kenyans after the attack chronicle the build-up to it – and show how comfortable the Briton was in his role of jihadist. In one sequence, a fighter is filmed making a roadside bomb and in another men are seen skinning and gutting a gazelle.
Evans then hands the camera to a colleague and is shown wearing a brown T-shirt, blue trousers and a camouflage cap.
He is seen listening with other fighters as a commander tells them: ‘The war starts now, we hear from their radio channels that the Kenyans are crying like babies, fear has struck in their hearts. God has given Islam real lions that are feared.’
A second white European with thick beard and dark hair hanging beyond his muscled shoulders can be seen with Evans. He survived the attack and has been named as Andreas Martin Müller, alias Abu Nusaybah, a German who has a $100,000 bounty on his head.
The body of Evans, who is one of at least 50 British people suspected of operating with Al-Shabaab, has been buried in northern Kenya after it was identified using DNA from his family.
An intelligence official in Kenyan capital Nairobi said the former electrician was a ‘significant and totally integrated figure’ within Al-Shabaab in northern Kenya. He is said to have taken part in the attack last year on the mainly Christian town of Mpeketoni in which 70 were killed. Evans has also been linked to the attack on Garissa University College in north- east Kenya in April that left 147 dead.
The son of a devout Christian, Evans converted to Islam in 2010, aged 19, after splitting up with his girlfriend. His mother Sally said she believed he was radicalised by a hard-line prayer centre.
He made a number of attempts to reach East Africa and finally in January 2012, Evans contacted his mother to say he had got to Somalia and joined Al-Shabaab. He later said he had married a girl of 13.
Before leaving he tried to convert his mother to Islam, resented music being played in her home and would not enter the f ront room at Christmas. When she learnt of the death on June 14, Mrs Evans said: ‘I just went numb. I couldn’t believe that was my son, my little boy.’
‘We hear they are crying like babies’