British security services arranged for Woolwich terror suspect Michael Adebolajo to be freed from a Kenyan jail after he was snatched by a unit of the SAS as he tried to enter war-torn Somalia, it was claimed today.

The British authorities believed that arranging his release from Kenya in 2010 would help persuade him to become an informant for MI5 and infiltrate radical Islamist groups.

The 28-year-old was one of seven men held by an SAS unit working with Kenya police and soldiers as they tried to cross into Somalia by speedboat to join the Al Shabaab terror group.

A Kenyan immigration source said British High Commission officials had intervened to help secure the release of Adebolajo, a suspect in the killing of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich last week.

The Kenyan lawyer who represented him at the time said the diplomats had given him a “clean bill of health” — an assertion which helped his release.

Wycliffe Makasembo told the Telegraph that the British officials had claimed Adebolajo had no criminal record “or any connection with any criminal or terrorist organisation”.

He was then returned to Britain on an ordinary commercial flight rather than deported.

Sources say that special forces soldiers who helped in his capture are furious that he was later freed to roam the streets and allegedly kill a British soldier. They say MI5 hoped its actions in “rescuing” the extremist from a Kenyan jail would persuade him to work with them.

But after being deported to the UK he was freed and MI5, which failed in its efforts to recruit him as an informant, put him on a low-level watch, apparently believing he was not a high risk.

Details of the SAS helicopter-borne operation to detain Adebolajo contradict claims that he was held by local police. However, units of special forces regularly train and operate in northern Kenya and are engaged in tracking and intercepting foreign fighters crossing into Somalia to join up with the al-Qaeda backed Al Shabaab terror group. The operations are part of a wider initiative to counter piracy in the region.

The latest revelations will add to pressure on the security services to explain why they did not do more to intervene in the actions of Adebolajo.

The terror suspect is believed to have converted to Islam in 2003, having been raised as a Christian.

He attended lectures by hate preacher Anjem Choudary and was pictured with the cleric in 2007 at a demonstration in London. Further video footage emerged today of the suspect addressing Muslims outside a mosque in north London on the anniversary of the US 9/11 attacks.

The clip in 2009 shows him urging the crowd outside the Harrow Road not to be afraid of the police.

Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism unit is continuing to investigate a network of individuals after making a total of 10 arrests.

Most of the individuals held have been released on bail but investigators are combing through emails and mobile phone records for evidence of links between them and with outside terror groups.

Police yesterday renewed appeals for any witnesses to the attack, or anyone with any information, to come forward.

They are also calling for information on the blue Vauxhall Tigra, registration N696 JWX, that hit Drummer Rigby last Wednesday afternoon.