'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite being protected by 15 al-Qaeda suicide fighters

The world's most wanted woman, Samantha Lewthwaite, dubbed the White Widow, is being protected in Somalia by al-Qaeda fighters.

Lewthwaite is reportedly hiding in Somalia after narrowly escaping death when a Kenya Defence Forces jet bombed a training camp of radical Islamic group al-Shabaab.

According to the Daily Express, she is now being guarded by nearly 15 men from the Istishhadyin unit, or suicide brigade, who have orders to protect her.

Lewthwaite, who converted to Islam at 17, is the widow of Germaine Lindsay, who was one of those who detonated explosives on the London Underground on July 7 2005, the report said.

She travelled to Kenya in 2011 with her three children using a false passport.

She is wanted in connection with several terror plots, including the Westgate Mall massacre in Kenya last September, in which 67 people were killed, the report said.

She has been reportedly spotted three weeks ago in a heavily wooded area in Somalia.

Colonel Yasin Hiro, of the Somali National Army, said that the white widow is being protected by some of their best fighters. They are moving her all the time, sometimes by camel or donkey, the report added.