Kenyans believed to have played key roles in Westgate attack

Sheikh Ahmed Iman Ali

According to a leaked National Security Intelligence report, Sheikh Ali, who was appointed by Al-Shabaab as its de facto leader of Kenyan fighters in Somalia, was among the masterminds of the Westgate attack.

“Al-Shabaab remains focused on conducting attacks through individuals who have not been arrested before. The masterminds of the intended attacks are Kenyans, who are in middle and senior management levels of the terror group.

“Among them are Maalim Abass Guyo, Ahmed Iman Ali and Jan Mohamed Khan, alias Abu Musab Al Mombasa,” says the NIS report.

Last year, Sheikh Ali released a video declaring war against Kenya on behalf of Al-Shabaab.

Interviews with those who know Sheikh Ali, a former chairman of the Muslim Youth Centre in Pumwani, Nairobi, said he was controversial since his days at Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology, where he graduated with a degree in engineering.

Born either in 1973 or 1974, the sheikh presents security agents with something new in the fight against terrorism.

Those acquainted to him say he was a charming preacher with a fanatical following among various Kenyan communities.

Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir

A home-grown jihadist from a well-to-do Kenyan Somali family, the 28-year-old Abdikadir is regarded one of the most dangerous Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda operatives. He has had a hand in nearly every terror attack in northeastern Kenya and Nairobi.

A CNN story claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency trained and provided Abdikadir, who also goes by the name Ikrima, with resources to infiltrate Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda in Yemen. He later turned against the CIA and used the resources for terrorism.

Abdikadir was born in 1985 to a Kenyan Somali middle class family in Mombasa. He appears to have had a normal childhood and no one imagined that the typical Kenyan youth would one day become a feared Islamist militant.

Like many children of his age, Abdikadir loved football, fancied stylish designer clothes, loved movies and went out clubbing with friends, according to multiple sources in the close-knit Somali community in Nairobi.

They said he was a ladies’ man because of his agility on the dance floor and good looks.

His friends have either gone into hiding, been warned not to speak to the media or are afraid to acknowledge ever knowing him.

Abdikadir is the subject of an intense manhunt by Kenya’s NIS and nearly all Western intelligence agencies.

Abu Sandheere

Sandheere is believed to have escorted the terrorists who attacked the Westgate shopping mall.

The 50-year-old Kenyan is said to have been an associate of Fazul Abdullah, a Qaeda leader who was killed in Somalia.

Sandheere, whose parents were a Maasai and a European, is believed to have escaped moments after the assault on the mall started.

“He escorted the attackers to the mall and then left as people were fleeing. He then travelled to the border and crossed into Somalia,” said an intelligence source.

According to counter-terrorism sources, the man, seconded to Al-Shabaab by Al-Qaeda network, arrived in Somalia after days of trying to evade security officers who had launched a crackdown across the country to stop suspected terrorists from escaping.

Sandheere — said to be the regional Al-Qaeda man in charge of intelligence, logistics and special operations — escaped from Westgate with two other unidentified terrorists.

He is also described as being “extremely sharp”.