Briton ‘second in command’ during Kenya al-Shabab raid
20 June 2015
From the section UK
Al-Shabab is behind several high-profile attacks
A British man killed while fighting with Islamist militant group al-Shabab in Kenya was second in command of his unit at the time, the BBC has learned.
Thomas Evans, 25, from Buckinghamshire, died in the thwarted attack on a military base on 14 June.
Police now say he was also the group’s cameraman, and captured images of the incident up until his death.
Kenyan security forces killed 11 gunmen and two soldiers died after the raid in Lamu County, near the Somali border.
Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia, has been behind a series of high-profile attacks including the Westgate shopping centre siege in Nairobi in 2013, and a violent assault on a university earlier this year in which nearly 150 people were killed.
BBC News correspondent Karen Allen said police had confirmed Evans was second in command on the day of the latest raid.
He can apparently be heard in a recording shouting orders over a radio to younger al-Shabab fighters, our correspondent added.
Two attempts
Kenyan security forces believe about 100 British nationals have joined al-Shabab.
Evans, a Muslim convert who changed his name to Abdul Hakim, had contacted his family in Wooburn Green in January 2012, to say he had travelled to Somalia to join the group.
British police had stopped him at Heathrow Airport in 2011 as he tried to board a plane to Kenya.
A few months later, he flew to Egypt, telling his family it was to learn Arabic.
It is now understood that, before he arrived in Somalia, Evans had tried to reach the Kenyan port of Mombasa from Egypt, but was stopped before he reached the border.
His mother, Sally, told the BBC …read more
Source:: BBC UK
