British international terrorist, ‘White Widow,’ real name
Samantha Lewthwaite, may be the mastermind behind the horrific Monday attack in
Nyanya, near Abuja.
While nobody has
officially claimed responsibility 48 hours after the blast, UK security
sources, according to reports, fear the bombing may have been a revenge attack
for the death of Lewthwaite’s mentor, al-Shabaab terror chief Makaburi, A. K.
A. Sheikh Abubakar Shariff Ahmed two weeks ago.
A senior security
source told UK’s Daily Star that agents across Africa were on high alert after
the assassination of Makaburi, reportedly by the UK and US funded Kenyan
Anti-Terror Police Unit, ATPU, 14 days ago, adding that Lewthwaite and her
associates “wanted revenge.”
The source said:
“Makaburi was always believed to be at the very top of the hierarchy of terror
organisation, al-Shabaab. Intelligence suggests he introduced Samantha
Lewthwaite to many influential figures within the al-Shabaab network.
“He guided her on
her path to Jihad. His murder was seen as yet another act of war.”
Lewthwaite, 30,
is believed to be in Nigeria, Kenya or Somalia, where Islamist terror networks
are closely linked, making it far easier for her to evade detection than in
Europe, the paper said.
The daughter of a
British Army soldier, she is already on Interpol’s most wanted list in
connection with seven murders and the siege of the Westgate shopping mall in
Nairobi, Kenya, in September last year which left 67 dead and nearly 200
injured.
The paper said:
“The world’s most wanted woman was reportedly caught at a checkpoint in Nigeria
just six months ago, but managed to bribe her way to freedom.
“It is thought
she commands enormous loyalty and power as a white convert female jihadist,
having proved her worth in previous attacks.”
As both a mother and widow of a 7/7 bomber, she also provides the groups with invaluable propaganda.
The White Widow,
who has been on the run since January 2012, got her grim nickname after husband
Germaine Lindsay blew up a London Tube train in the 7/7 bombings in 2005.
Fifty six people
were killed and more than 700 injured. Interpol has issued a rare ‘Red Notice’
for the White Widow’s arrest.
Lewthwaite, from
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, is believed to have widely used the alias ‘Natalie
Webb’ and travelled on a forged South African passport. She is now officially
being hunted by 190 countries and is one of the most wanted international
fugitives in the world.
Police seized her
laptop in 2011 and found details of how to build bombs and evidence she was
planning multiple terrorist attacks both in Africa and the West.
She has also been
linked to grenade attacks at non-Muslim places of worship in Africa and a
terrorist attack on western football fans watching Euro 2012 in the Jericho bar
in Mombasa.
Head of Interpol,
Ronald Noble, said: “There is a global ‘tripwire’ for this fugitive. All 190
member-countries are aware of the danger posed by this woman, not just across
the region but also worldwide.”
-Vangaurd
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