Westgate master mind ‘White widow’ feared dead

Nairobi.
Wanted British terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite, commonly known as the “White Widow”, has reportedly been killed in Ukraine, British newspaper Daily Mirror reported yesterday.

The paper, quoting unverified reports from a Moscow news agency, Regnum, claimed that the notorious terrorist who has operated from Kenya was gunned down by a Russian sniper two weeks ago.

“One of the world’s most wanted terrorists Samantha Lewthwaite who fought as part of a Ukrainian battalion has been killed by a volunteer sniper,” the news agency reported.

“According to our information, the White Widow fought on the side of Ukrainian volunteer battalion Aidar as a sniper”.

She is believed to have run terrorist cells operating between Mombasa and Somalia for many years.

During the Westgate Mall terrorist attack in Nairobi in 2013, there were unproven claims of her involvement. Lewthwaite, 30, is believed to have coordinated several terror attacks in the country and escaped a police dragnet in Mombasa and fled to Somalia.

Another Briton, Jermaine Grant, who is on trial in Mombasa, is also believed to be Ms Lewthwaite’s accomplice.

In August 2014, Kenyan detectives told a court in Mombasa that they had lost the trail of the British terror suspect.

Lewthwaite is the widow of Germaine Lindsay, one of four Islamist suicide bombers who attacked the London transport network on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people.

Certification of death
However, Rusian authorities are yet to confirm the killing of Ms Lewthwaite, who is the daughter of a former soldier.

Unverified press reports claim that she joined the Islamic State insurgency in Syria earlier this year.
In September 2013, Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for the “White Widow”.

The warrant was in relation to possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit terrorist crimes in Mombasa dating back to December 2011.

Computer files seized from her previous home in Mombasa by police have shown the mother of four wrote poetry praising Osama bin Laden, as well as showing a keen interest in dieting and fitness programmes.

Kenyan media have several times reported witnesses seeing a mystery white woman during a string of grenade attacks or killings at the Coast, but who apparently then vanishes without a trace.

In June 2014, media speculated that a white woman had been allegedly offered a police escort in April to visit a Kenyan army base in Somalia before disappearing.