Flanked by her doting husband and children, Samantha Lewthwaite gently cradles her newborn baby in a picture of bliss that would grace any family photo album.
But the happy scene masks a burning radicalism that intelligence chiefs believe the British Muslim convert was preparing to unleash against Western targets that would lead her to become the world's most wanted woman.
White Widow Lewthwaite, 29, was later named as a key figure in last month's horrific terror attack in a Nairobi shopping mall, which killed more than 70 people, including five Brits, by Islamic extremists al-Shabaab.
Within weeks of this snap being taken by an unsuspecting nurse in July 2010 at a Johannesburg hospital, the mum-of-four was spotted allegedly staking out embassies in South Africa.
As Lewthwaite cuddles the hour-old tot Surajah, her lover, jihadi bomb maker Habib Ghani, looks on proudly, wearing a cream sweater and stonewashed jeans. He also scoops up the couple's son Abdur-Rahman, five.
By her bed stand her eldest boy Abdullah, nine, and daughter Ruqayyah, eight – the offspring of her relationship with 7/7 London suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay.
Just 18 months later, Lewthwaite was linked to a terror plot to murder Western tourists by attacking luxury resorts in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.
As she became a major player inside al-Shabaab, she split with Ghani when he fell out with terrorists in Somalia, where he was eventually assassinated.
A senior security source said: "Samantha Lewthwaite lived a double life of a doting mother and international terrorist side by side.
"After being welcomed into the inner circle of al-Shabaab, her contacts stretched far and wide.
"Her thirst for power and influence became insatiable, leading to her becoming one of the world's most dangerous terrorists."
Lewthwaite has been in hiding since December 2011 after Kenyan police linked her and British terror suspect Jermaine Grant, 30, to the Mombasa plot. He is on trial over those allegations.
The White Widow, a British soldier's daughter from Aylesbury, Bucks, is the subject of an international manhunt by nearly 200 countries after being named in a Red Alert by Interpol after the shopping mall atrocity.
New information has emerged linking Lewthwaite to al-Shabaab safe houses in Tanzania and Somalia – where she has "become a hero" amongst fanatics in both countries, according to security sources.
Spy chiefs said the "international security community" is locked in talks to arrange a huge reward for information leading to her arrest.
Lewthwaite is a prime target for American special forces engaged in a number of "highly classified" operations to capture a dozen of the world's most wanted terrorists.
Away from her suspected life of increasing Islamic extremism, before now little has been known of her time with Ghani, of Hounslow, West London, and her four children.
These pictures were obtained exclusively by the Mirror and show a seemingly softer side to the woman hunted by police around the world. She looks exhausted as she cuddles her newborn tot.
The photo is believed to have been taken in Johannesburg in 2010 after Lewthwaite had cut all ties with her family in Britain.
After originally branding first husband Lindsay's Tube bombing as "abhorrent" she is believed to have moved to Kenya in 2007 and South Africa in 2008.
A security source said: "Lewthwaite quickly became immersed in East Africa's Islamic terror networks and developed an understanding of their inner workings.
"She became adept at using her children as cover and fitting into her communities without arousing suspicion."
Originally she made contacts with the higher ranks of al-Qaeda which went on to ally with al-Shabaab. They saw her as a valuable propaganda tool.
Using the name Asmaa Shahidah Bint-Andrews, Lewthwaite returned to the UK in 2009 to give birth to third child at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Within weeks of having Ghani's baby, and said to be using a fake identity under the name of Natalie Faye Webb, she allegedly went to war-torn Somalia to meet with al-Shabaab leaders.
Here, it is claimed, she became more extreme and vowed to become an integral part of the murderous organisation.
In 2010, soon before her youngest daughter was born, she moved with Ghani back to South Africa.
They rented a house in Johannesburg and she worked in a halal pie factory.
Months later Ghani left to fight for al-Shabaab in Somalia. Lewthwaite was spotted allegedly staking out embassies, including the British High Commission.
The White Widow, saddled with debt, moved to Nairobi in February 2011.
Over the next six months it is claimed she meticulously plotted terror attacks on an upmarket shopping mall and plush district popular with Westerners.
In September that year she left the city to link up with Grant and allegedly plot Christmas-time attacks in Mombasa. They were foiled when he was arrested.
As her power and influence increased, Lewthwaite emerged as a rising star in al-Shabaab and her relationship with Ghani, 28, soon soured after he came back from fighting in Somalia.
A senior security source said: "When he returned his wife had transformed into a major player within the organisation. He was no longer the main focus, the breadwinner.
"Samantha had plans and ideas for the future. The group were listening to her and she certainly wasn't afraid to go it alone."
Ghani decided to leave the home in Mombasa and the couple split up.
We showed pictures of them to a former neighbour in the city who said: "Yes, I remember them well.
"The children were always polite and said hello. The woman only wore Muslim dress and she never spoke, she was quite rude actually.
"The man was more polite, he used to hang around a lot and then suddenly he stopped.
"I never saw him again and soon after that the mother and the children moved away from here."
Ghani went back to the battlefields of Somalia, where al-Shabaab was still fighting to instil the harsh Sharia law.
But after a hiatus from the group and following his break up from Lewthwaite, his influence had diminished.
By summer 2012 he went into hiding after he expressed "differences" with high ranking al-Shabaab officials.
After more than a year on the run the explosives expert, also known as Osama al-Britani, was slaughtered in an ambush in a small town 200 miles west of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Gunmen posing as travellers pretended to stop to pray when they cut him down.
Ghani was reportedly with up to eight other armed men, three of who were killed alongside him.
A security source said: "The White Widow has shown herself to be one of the most ruthless operatives in the world.
"She will stop at nothing until she reaches her objectives.
"The international community must do all it can to capture this woman before it is too late."
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