A baby girl, Surajah, was born with no complications, aided by midwife Lesley Rose, and was duly registered with authorities.
Asmaa Shahidah Bint-Andrews turned out to be Lewthwaite using an alias. The infant was her fourth child — she had remarried.
Authorities later said she is believed to have entered the country using a South African passport issued to Natalie Webb.
Nearly two years later, in early 2012, Kenyan counterterrorism police made the startling announcement that Lewthwaite had linked up with key figures in the shadowy Al Shabab terrorist networks, which has ties to Al Qaeda and is branded a global threat by U.S. officials. Police said she and others had entered Kenya the year before to plan a bomb attack on a coastal resort over the Christmas holidays.
Police had nearly nabbed her in a raid on Dec. 20, 2011 — just days before the planned attack — but let her go after being fooled by the South African passport she was carrying.
Lewthwaite was said to have fled to Al Shabab's base in Somalia after that close call.
Kenyan authorities issued an arrest warrant for Lewthwaite to answer bomb-making charges, which had been kept secret for four months. The warrant said Lewthwaite possessed acetone, hydrogen peroxide, ammonium nitrate, sulphur and lead nitrate, as well as batteries, a switch and electrical wire — preparations similar to the ones used so effectively by the London subway bombers.
Though the bombings never took place, the myth of the white widow was born.
Lewthwaite's second husband, like her first, was a British-born Muslim.
It is not clear whether she and Habib Ghani met in England and went to Africa together or if they met in Africa.
